Fingers Around My Toes
by Lapiz Sagana
Summary: SEQUEL to MY TOES, MY KNEES, MY SHOULDERS, My Head. Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.
1. Chapter 1

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Sagana**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 **Tsunade:**

Temari from the Sand Village was already standing in front of my desk when Shizune and I entered my office. She was decent enough to sport her black kimono which hid her battle outfit; nevertheless, her fiddling with the fan in her hand betrayed the composure she projected.

Our previous encounters had given me enough opportunity to observe her. She was not the type of woman to be fazed by a confidential meeting with the Kage of an ally village, which meant that the matter to be discussed weighed on her nerves just as much as it weighed on mine.

The first time we met to discuss this particular matter, she had bothered to bow and to present a gift from the Lord Kazekage to show Suna's gratitude for not battling them on the wealth they had acquired from the legendary sepulchre. Along with the gift of an ancient sandglass had been the promise to invest further into the joint medical ventures between the two villages.

Now, Temari merely nodded at me and proceeded to voice her doubts before I could even round my desk and sit on my chair. She was eager to settle the matter quickly; so was I.

"There's no doubt that the Sand Shinobi who attacked Neji Hyuuga is one of ours," she said, putting her hand on her hip and frowning at the documents she had left on my desk. "But autopsy reveals that he's been dead two hours prior to the assault on your men. I hope that, since your autopsy results show the same thing, this incident will not strain the relationship between the Sand and the Leaf."

I allowed myself to sink into the chair. The soles of my feet throbbed, making me wonder how the hours had gone by in the operating room without my noticing them. I sighed and said, "We demanded to have our own medics - Kazuo and Isas - present during the autopsy not because we were suspicious of you but because we wanted to further prove your innocence. In case somebody unearths that event, you won't have to travel here with a legal team anymore. Our own records will clearly state that the unfortunate Sand Shinobi had been manipulated after his death."

"By Orochimaru."

"By Kabuto under the orders of Orochimaru," I clarified. "The threat isn't immeasurable while he's still half-paralyzed."

Temari glimpsed the door behind her. She folded her arms across her chest, her fan pinned between two of her fingers and tapping her hip. "Did erasing their memory help or did it worsen your chances of acquiring the information you need?"

Shizune scooped TonTon from the floor and told him to keep quiet. He kept snorting and kicking until I couldn't take his noise anymore and I ordered Shizune to walk him in the park. He was probably more hungry than usual but he wouldn't tell me. I waited for the door to be shut and locked before I responded to Temari.

"We had to choose between solving the case and disappointing Orochimaru." I crossed my legs and looked out the open window to my right. "We can still solve the case without any help from Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sai; albeit doing so would be harder. Nevertheless, increasing our burden is far better than risking the chance of Orochimaru getting what he wants from those three shinobis."

"You are working with a much smaller team than before?"

"Yes, and with much lesser time. Jiraiya is regularly scouting outside the village, pursuing Orochimaru's trail and eliminating any threat that has any hint of finding its origins with that snake. I have to thank you again for agreeing to cooperate with us during the Jounin Exams. It will make protecting Sakura easier, knowing the Sand has its eyes open for our enemy as well."

She lifted one corner of her mouth, the closest she could come to smiling right now. "It will reflect poorly on us if the Haruno girl were to be abducted within the Sand's premises. She has given Lady Chiyo's lifelong work incredible justice. Perhaps that is the primary reason I am baffled by your request to fail her in the exams."

"You're a smart girl – er, young lady – I'm certain you've had your assumptions."

"You don't wish to give her a role that requires travelling out of the village as squad captain. At least, not while Orochimaru is hunting her down."

"Precisely."

"But she is not Orochimaru's main target."

"Yes, Shikamaru is at the heart of the problem."

"When I said that I was baffled by your decision to withhold Sakura Haruno her due promotion, I meant that I do not see why you are giving her security the same importance as Shikamaru's when Orochimaru must already know that the absence of her memories will have decreased her usefulness to him."

"The motive for her capture – if Orochimaru chooses to and succeeds in capturing her – will be impossible to fabricate. We are stressing the non-existence of the rebirth case, Miss Temari. Our actions revolve and evolve around that truth."

Her brows lowered over her eyes. Her gaze sharpened, but it was not threatening; rather it was contemplating, patient, and wise. "Are you considering the chance that their memories will return to them?"

"There is no chance of that."

"But the mind infiltration-"

"Is only as strong as their conviction on the lie we told them," I said as I reviewed the autopsy report from Suna. Their medical eloquence had improved a great deal since collaborating with our team. "Yes, that's true. However, there is no chance that erased memories will return. They are erased - not depressed so as they can surface when the subjects hit their heads against the pavement. The closest we come to developing a concern for that is the chance that they will grow suspicious and attempt to uncover the past."

"Their memories are already gone. Won't briefing them on the rebirth case prove harmless? You explained to me in our previous meeting that only the scars left by the rebirth are dangerous. I assume that those scars won't return even if they are reminded of the case."

I sat straight on my chair and tipped my head sideways, allowing myself to contemplate her wisdom. "Well, the secondary purpose of the mind infiltration was to push them apart."

Her brows rose and her mouth gaped. " _Oh_. I see. So until now you are making sure that they don't get ... _involved_...a second time."

"Shikamaru has willingly gone through extreme heights for Sakura's salvation. Orochimaru might use her as hostage and Shikamaru might outsmart the rest of us again and risk his life." The memory of his dying body on the Third Training Ground swarmed my chest with anxiety. I diverted my attention to the autopsy report again before the remembrance of stabbing Sakura could make me wince.

"And so far they haven't shown interest in each other?" asked Temari.

"Apart from the initial inconvenience that will have on the case, it will be disadvantageous to Shikaku Nara's plans for securing Shikamaru's position as his heir," I said. "Shikamaru isn't in the proper health to be deployed out of the village, nor is he in the proper position to be minding anything other than his inheritance at the moment. All the help we need from Suna is regarding Sakura Haruno's wellbeing since she is the one who is advancing quickly in the ranks and becoming of great appeal to the other villages. Leave Shikamaru to us. His father has already formulated a plan for his future, anyway. He is so clever that he even managed to include this case in the solution he's come up with. It's safe to say that this case will meet its end soon."

Temari blinked several times at me. This was the first she had indulged me with such an innocent stare. "And what kind of solution can that be?"

I smiled, pretending to be smug when deep inside I was hurting for Sakura.

 **Shikamaru:**

I heard the men's rumblings from the adjacent room. The Pillars of the Nara Clan, as we called them, had been in a conference with dad and a medical expert sent by Lady Tsunade since breakfast. The hours had passed, but the tension in their pitch and the awkwardness in their periods of silence had not once failed to frustrate me. I was continuously being drained of hope, but I remained sitting straight and drinking my tea as though nothing could break me. Mum sat opposite me. She lifted the china to her lips with her right hand and tapped Yutsuki to sleep with her left.

My little sister rolled to her side and spread her arms on the floor. She would wake up from time to time to look at me, as though to check if I had deflated and passed on to the next life. She was a curious creature with that habit of hers. It was as if she knew exactly what was running in my head.

Uncle Toya, mum's older brother, kept the sliding door to the garden slightly apart. He had joked earlier that keeping all the doors shut would suffocate us. After all, the Naras had a way of sucking the air in the room until there was none left for the other living beings to use. Mum had smacked his head and retorted that while that joke had been funny before she married Shikaku, it was now offensive because she had two Naras of her own to think of.

I glimpsed him through the gap of the sliding door. His back was turned to us as he watched the trees drizzle leaves onto the pond at the farther end of our garden. His grey hair danced with the blowing wind. His fingers maintained their grip on his cup of tea. Even though he was too talkative for me to endure, I loved him for standing by mother's side whenever conundrums like these would arise. Mum would not admit it, but dad and I were sure that Uncle Toya's presence meant the world to her now of all times.

I stared at the pool of green tea sitting at the bottom of my cup. It barely caught my reflection. I saw my ponytail, though, and the spikes of hair it had gathered as my crown. All my life, dad told me I would succeed him. All my life, he and mum prepared me for the task I was bound to shoulder once I come of age.

It only took an ambush in the cave from Ryo, my reckless but successful attempt at reversing the rebirth jutsu on Sakura, and a dangerous quantity of physical disabilities to turn the tables against us.

I had no idea what would come for my family tomorrow. What if dad failed and the Pillars would not concede to the clan's laws? What if the expert medic that Lady Tsunade sent to us could not convince them of the lie that I was not medically capable of fighting for my inheritance in my current state? They were trying to buy me one more month to recover. What if the Pillars could not wait that long?

I saw mum inhale and exhale, and I could tell that she was tired.

Yutsuki opened her eyes to check on me again. I winked at her and she resumed her nap.

I bowed my head and said, "Mum, what if I lose?"

"You can't." She smoothed the skirt of her kimono and swallowed hard. "Your father is doing his best."

The sliding door of the adjacent room opened. We saw the silhouette of the men as they filed into the corridor and walked past our room. One of them glanced my way, and I cringed even though I knew that he could not have been looking at me on purpose. He could not have seen me, either. Why had I reacted like a frightened cat?

Mum poured tea on the empty cup next to hers. She carried Yutsuki to her lap and listened with me as father thanked the expert medic. The silhouette of a woman glided past our room. Dad opened the door and greeted us with a sigh.

Uncle Toya stepped in, too, and resumed his seat beside me. "How was the battlefield, Shikaku?"

Dad kissed mum's temple and sat down. "Master Mori nearly leapt over the table to strangle me. Sometimes, I wish I do not have to outwit them. Surrendering to their insanity would have provided me with the peace that I deserve."

"Sorry you I had to make you go through that," I mumbled.

Dad sipped his tea. "Still sulking? Tsk. I didn't say that to imply that you are a burden, son. You should have gone to the training grounds to exercise your shadow manipulation jutsu."

"I thought tradition is important."

"Tradition my ass!" He slammed the cup on the table. "They should have lowered their damn heads when you greeted them at the gate! They should have bid you farewell by retreating backwards until they reached the front door! You should have gone to the training ground and showed them that they aren't worth a second of your time!"

Mum removed her hands from Yutsuki's ears when she was sure that dad's outburst was over. "Shikaku, tell your son you didn't mean that."

"Of course I meant it!" He slammed his hand on the floor. "But I am glad that you rubbed the point of proper conduct on their faces! They should be ashamed of themselves! They treat my son as though it's certain that – "

"Dad!"

He froze; his mouth wide open and his arms flung in mid-air.

I stood. "It's okay for them to treat me that way. I don't mind. Let's just focus instead on what we can do to fix this."

Uncle Toya brought out a flask of sake from his knapsack and tossed it on dad's lap. "Calm down, Shikaku. We understand that their behavior is maddening, but Shikamaru has a point – "

"What did you conclude in the meeting?" Mum grabbed his hand and redirected the conversation, knowing that dad hated being lectured by his 'underlings'.

His twisted face relaxed with mum's touch. He mumbled his gratitude to uncle for bringing sake, consumed the contents of the flask, coughed, and answered, "As usual, I won them over. You have one month to recover, Shikamaru. It isn't what they said in the meeting that makes me angry – it's their behavior towards my own flesh and blood. Shikamaru, you will do everything in your power to repress those Pillars once you're chief, do you hear? I can bet my life that those old people would already be dead by that time. The future heirs don't need to be bullied by greedy men like them."

Mum hit his head. "You hypocrite! Don't go ordering you son to do that when I've worked so hard to raise him to be a respectful and loving young man!"

"It's family politics, Yoshino," he said as he jiggled the flask beside his ear to check if he had really finished the sake. "We've agreed to stop from keeping Shikamaru in the dark about these damn things. Aren't I right, Toya?"

"The world is evil," he said.

I rubbed my neck and felt my skin go hot. "Dad, what's the plan? Everyone knows I can't recover in one month. The Pillars only agreed to that because they're sure of my disability. They think they just have to wait thirty days to replace me but I know you've got something else in mind."

Uncle Toya stood and offered to take Yutsuki to her room. Mum thanked him and transferred the bulbous little girl to his arms. He bowed to my dad to mock him and left the room. Dad groaned his disapproval of him.

Mum massaged her forehead. "Shikaku, spit it out. Spare my son from further agony. He can handle it."

"Dad, you've snuck behind my back long enough. I need to know the plan."

"You'll meet your fiancé next week." He closed his eyes and flattened his hands on his thighs, entering the pose that told me he would not be bothered after he was done speaking. "She belongs to a sub-group in the Nara Clan and is the only one of the many candidates who has agreed to wed you with the kindest of conditions – that I promise to support her brother's financial standing and help them regain their title as the primary guard of the clan. A marriage between you two would suffice for your current disabilities and quiet the conundrum until you regain your health."

I descended to the floor. The air thickened around me and my slowed my breathing. I could not speak. My legs numbed beneath my weight. A vein in my neck throbbed.

Mum scooted close to me and squeezed my shoulder. "You need a partner who is physically strong, Shikamaru. After you've made your proposal to her and she accepts, you can stand in front of the Pillars and proclaim that you have solved their principal concern that has become the basis of your near termination. They no longer have to worry about the time it will take for you to recover your original prowess; you'll have a wife from the clan's guards who can fulfill the role that you are temporarily barred from fulfilling. Shikamaru, listen to me. You don't have to marry her given that you do recover fully."

My fists trembled. My whole body trembled. "And if I remain a cripple for the rest of my life, I will be the joke of the clan. I will be the only head who relies on the strength of a woman to defend him!"

I walked out of the room. Mum called after me, but dad told her to leave me alone. He said, with a voice abounding in confidence, that I would accept this plan because I was smart and I knew this was the safest course to take.

Suddenly, as I was marching out of the house, I remembered the events two weeks ago when Sanae, Sakura, Inoichi, and I solved the mystery of the rebirth case. We'd been working five months on it then, and as soon as we found the answer, Lady Tsunade ordered for that knowledge to be stripped from us. Inoichi took it from our minds – even his, although it was a longer and more difficult process – and sealed it in a scroll that only Lady Tsunade could break.

Sakura and I stood abreast in that barely furnished underground room while the rest of them turned all our files into piles of ashes. Five months. We envisioned that moment to be happy and overwhelming with relief, not exhausting beyond words. We'd fought our way through five months of being casual in public, ignoring each other as much as possible, and meeting only in the confines of the underground room where the rebirth and all its secrets were kept.

Now that it was over we had no more sanctuary to sustain our relationship. Our orders were to act normal while Lady Tsunade manipulated my father, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Neji, Nohara, and the rest of the team into believing the mystery wasn't solved. She'd justified it by saying it was the only means to keep Orochimaru off the right track. "Until we have guaranteed that the rebirth jutsu is no longer a threat," she'd added, "you're not allowed to reveal that you didn't lose your memories. I forbid you to show affection for each other in public. It will take only one wrong move for Orochimaru to realize we're playing him."

Shizune, recognizing our fatigue, had been kind enough to arrange a bunk for Sakura and me that same evening. We lay on the bed, arms around each other, and slept for only four hours because she was due to leave for Suna at dawn.

Sakura had buried her face on my chest and asked me something I wished I hadn't told her to repeat. "Do you think we should give it a rest for a while?"

Once I heard her correctly, I wanted to shake her back to when this struggle started five months ago. Shake her back to the version of her who encouraged me to make the most of what we had. We promised each other we'd try.

In the end, I let her leave without looking at her. I knew we tried and she was entitled to have this 'rest' she asked for. This secret relationship with me had only sucked the spirit out of her. Sometimes I wished Inoichi removed our memories of the case for good instead.

I pushed open the front door. Sunlight blinded me for a couple of seconds. I raised my arm over my eyes to shield them.

I strolled the outskirts of the village, wanting peace and failing to find it. Choji would have provided a suitable distraction by reciting the recipe of her mother's newest dish, but he wouldn't be here until tomorrow afternoon. The Jounin Exams had just concluded in Suna two days ago. Ino, Choji, Kiba, and Sakura had participated. Once the results come out, I would be the only chuunin in the batch. Worse; with my current skills, I barely qualified for that rank.

The wind poured on me with the strength of a waterfall, forcing me to lay on the grass and to watch the clouds.

"This will work, Sakura," I whispered, hoping by some miracle she'd hear me wherever she was. "This is a fucking drag but I'll make it work."


	2. Chapter 2

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

 **Neji:**

The whistling of the wind from the east made my job as watch guard easier. The kind songs of midnight that accompanied the wind levelled my thoughts and relieved me of the stress I had been shouldering for the past two weeks.

I tipped my head back and saw that the moon had slid lower on the other side of the sky. The darkness of the forest surrounding this inn helped in unravelling the true brightness of the stars. The constellations squeezed themselves in their assigned places in the heavens, distracting each person who was as wary as I of enemies lurking in the dark.

I stretched my legs slowly, indulging my joints with the gentleness they needed to get me to my desired position on the roof. Overexerting my body still made me sore too quickly. The months of treatment I already had could only be the beginning of the long road to total recovery.

I missed the days I felt invincible.

My fingers slipped beneath my collar and touched the scar from Kabuto's attack in the hospital bridge. I thought it funny now that it was Sakura who made me promise not to lose my memories and yet it was her going about her life today without a clue as to what we went through. It stung, sometimes, to hear her make jokes in our group that she had told me in the hospital before and to have her ask which dish in the menu I preferred when she used to know the answer to that.

I could recall the afternoon she inspected the apartment she would end up renting. She had stood at the center, turned around and smiled at me. "This is it," she'd said with nothing but certainty dripping from every word. Her description of the place had been 'pink and perfect', and she'd spent the entire afternoon convincing me that she was capable of living on her own.

She had given me a spare key the soonest she acquired hers, saying she didn't mind that I wished to check on her every other day. I didn't pursue the implication behind it...the hint that she, too, had been afraid she'd hurt herself and nobody would be able to open the front door to stop her.

While in the Sand Village, I tried my best not to stare at her and ponder on the mind infiltration that had tampered with her memories. I tried not to initiate a conversation unless necessary because I might say something that would reveal to her my knowledge of her life. The hardest of these trials happened after the preliminaries of the exam, when she was sent to the emergency room for the medics to stitch the gash on her forehead and I couldn't even yell at them that Sakura hated sedatives and anaesthesia. She'd rather feel the pain than last through several hours without sensation in her body.

In spite of our lost moments, I was glad that she was several steps farther from Orochimaru's clutches. She was safe now. I should be satisfied with that.

A pair of hands appeared on the edge of the roof. I reached for the kunai sitting beside me.

Pale, sculpted arms emerged and Kurenai's head rose above the curved tiles. She leapt upward and landed next to my left foot. "Your shift's over, Neji. Go to sleep."

I pocketed my kunai. "I'm fine and far from sleepy."

"We won't be taking breaks in the morning. Our aim is to arrive at Konoha by noon." She sat a little way behind me, on the fold of the roof. "Can you hold up?"

"I've been through worse."

"I can say the same thing about chaperoning these teenagers."

"What is worse than forcing adolescents to eat their meals on time and to return the inn's furniture to their original place?"

"My daughter," she chirped, laughter clinging to her voice. "Hanako can be curiously brutal some days. I've had no decent sleep since she came into this world. She's so young and yet she can already copy the script on the parchments I prepare in order to make special bombs. Her fingers have a life of their own. I swear she's more gifted than Asuma could ever have imagined."

"Hinata is constantly bragging about Hanako to Lord Hiashi and me."

"She does?"

"Kiba and Shino do so, too, actually. They say they are looking forward to being her instructor in the future."

"Oh my." She chuckled. "It seems they didn't know that Asuma already honored Shikamaru with that task."

"It appears his future will be filled with adventure."

"He's had more than enough adventure in the past year and a half alone."

I glanced back at her. She looked at me and held my gaze. "I'm sure that while more are to come, this danger in his life will pass soon," she said.

I pulled my right knee to my chest and wrapped my arm around it. The forest sustained its innocence. Morning would come soon. "The best I can do to help him is to reduce the team's worry over Sakura's wellbeing. Once we're back in the village, I won't be surprised if they shift your assignment from Sakura to Shikamaru. The Hokage must have come up with a more formidable plan during the two weeks we were in Suna, and I assume that your help will be requested on his side. They'll leave me alone to handle Sakura's tantrums after she finds out that her promotion will be hindered."

"And how do you plan to continue your stoic act towards her?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's obvious how hard you're trying, Neji," she said with a wan smile. "It's not a weakness to admit you're disappointed she doesn't remember you were good friends. At least, before they wiped her memory clean."

Ayano's corpse came to mind, with her lips smiling and her breath drifting. I traced the scar on my wrist with my thumb, thinking of the strange circumstances with Sakura that had made me vulnerable so soon after I had lost my fiancé. "It's not what you think," I said, more to myself than to her. "I exert this much effort into this mission because Ayano died saving her. Her sacrifice mustn't go to waste."

"Of course I agree with you on that."

"Perhaps when the Hokage has relieved me of being her bodyguard, I will consider the prospect of re-establishing our friendship. Now is simply not the right time to think of her as anything more than my assignment." Standing, I dusted my clothes and announced I'd check on our party. "If somebody snuck out again, I'll be bringing him or her straight to the hospital in Konoha."

"They've been warned." Kurenai nodded and let me leave.

I strolled along the corridors and took my time in climbing the stairs to the third landing where our rooms were situated. The meagre lighting dimmed the intricate details of the engravings on the walls, reducing it to a shallow box that screamed solitude and suspicion.

Four groups of travelers arrived at this inn soon after we did , and while none of them carried visible weapons or behaved in the fashion of a shinobi, I could not let my guard down and risk susceptibility. Two of the men who had dined in the hall for supper had glanced several times in Sakura's direction. Five, older and brawnier men had dared to approach Ino Yamanaka and engage her in conversation. Kiba did a terrific job at proclaiming the status of their relationship and insulting the men so gravely that I had to intervene to avoid a fight. Maybe my Byakugan was the reason the two men did not look at Sakura again. Nevertheless, pinning their interest on her as mere sexual attraction would prove to be unprofessional on my part.

Orochimaru was too proficient a shinobi to be underestimated.

I walked to the door of the first room and peered through the gap. My sight adjusted to the gloom inside and I made out the figure of the men sprawled on their respective futons. Kichirou's left arm dangled over the edge of his elevated bed and his fist hung directly above Choji's open mouth. Akamaru sneezed, urging Kiba to shift his head from the dog's neck to its belly. Noboru hid inside his travel bag; a habit of his that everybody had grown to accept as normal rather than eerie.

Satisfied, I crept to the second room and pried the sliding doors apart with my forefinger.

Hana, Miyako, and Momoka were snuggled close to each other in their large futon. A quilt of red and yellow sheathed their bare legs. Hana's socked feet peeped from the confines of the quilt. Momoka rolled to her right and embraced Kyoko, as though noticing that the young girl was shivering in the cold.

Ino had spread her bedding near the balcony and was snoring the famous snore that Choji had mimicked in the men's room after dinner earlier. Amazing. She was making the exact snorting sounds that he made.

I squinted at the futon next to Ino – the one where I had last seen Sakura rest her body.

The moonlight seeped into the room and washed the empty space beside Ino with enough clarity to confirm the validity of the panic that had struck me. My feet slid backwards and my tongue curled in my mouth to call Kurenai. Blood raced to my face and burned my skin. As I whipped around and shouted the first syllable of her name, I felt a body stand next to me and saw its slender hand push the sliding doors close.

Sakura tossed her chin up. "What in the world do you think you're doing, Neji?"

I tried to speak but could not, my composure all but gone by the momentary shock of the presumption that she had slipped away from view and we would, yet again, have to sacrifice another life to retrieve hers.

"Neji?"

I stepped away from the door and cleared my throat. "I was making sure no one left unnoticed. Where were you?"

She raised a glass of milk. The steam carried its putrid smell towards me. "I couldn't sleep so I asked the kind girl in the kitchen to make this for me. Geez, Neji, I never thought you to be the paranoid type. It's not as though we've never been on a mission outside of Konoha before. If I hadn't stopped myself in time, I would have knocked you unconscious with one punch!"

I scowled at her and walked to the third room to check on the last group of men. "Go to sleep," I said. "We've got a long way to travel in the morning."

"Alright. I'm going to bed. Goodnight." She entered her room, misaligning the door as she slid it close behind her.

That would be the twelfth damage our group owed the innkeeper. I doubt the Hokage would reimburse my money if she could blame this unnecessary expense on my skills as a guardian. Asking Kurenai to split the financial responsibility was not even something to be considered.

I lingered in the corridor, taking solace in the gloom that accompanied the inn's quiet ambiance. A had just raised my head when something struck me as amiss. Looking down at the pattern on the floor, I noted a fissure that must've been caused by a blade, possibly by a traveling shinobi who had a habit of stabbing the ground he stood on. Moving forward ten steps, I knelt beside a dent so identical in depth and curve I only had to glimpse the interior of the inn once to confirm I'd been trapped in a genjutsu.

The trick to recreating a setting quickly through genjutsu was to repeat patterns the victim wouldn't pay close attention to. This gave way for the user to make more intricate matters like people, sound, and lighting more believable, rendering the illusion more efficient.

I freed myself and paused, uncertain in the first few seconds of release whether it was gone for good, before dashing to the middle room.

The once occupied futons now lay on the floor without a sign of having been used by the girls. The same was apparent for the other two rooms occupied by Kiba, Choji, and the rest of the males in the team.

"Byakugan!" I checked the roof for any sign of Kurenai and found none. Now the difficult part was telling when the illusion started. I checked the rest of the inn and determined no threat inside. Whoever or whatever trapped me in a genjutsu had done so for longer than I'd expected. Otherwise, I would've felt the movement of so many shinobis making their way out of the inn's perimeter. The use of patterns also gave away the intention of having me believe everybody was where they should be, perhaps simply to delay my pursuit of them once the genjutsu user ran out of stamina to maintain the illusion.

I climbed to the roof and searched the forest for any sign of my comrades, especially Kurenai and Sakura. As I turned in my spot to examine the forest and determine in what direction I should go, I also considered the need to call for reinforcement.

Kurenai could hardly be fooled by any genjutsu anymore, so if the enemy had tried and failed, a struggle would've ensued. I doubt that could happen without either party leaving any evidence. One attack from Kiba and Akamaru alone could destroy at least half of the inn.

No, a struggle was out of the picture. The sustained tranquility could either mean the enemy was able to force them to leave silently or they were possessed into doing so.

The large communion of chakra east of the forest gave their location away. I maneuvered past the thick vegetation while bracing myself to make difficult choices should I come face to face with Orochimaru. Who else could conduct such a thing except someone in Lady Tsunade and Lord Jiraiya's level?

The chakra pooled in my fingertips as the adrenaline of the moment consumed me. I hardly felt the leaves and branches I broke on my way to my destination. My mind was focused on the prospect of having to leave everybody else behind if it meant escaping with the only possible target – Sakura.

I landed on a branch near the canopy and studied the sight ahead. It made more sense for them to be barely mobile while the enemy hadn't realized I was in pursuit of them, but for me to get this close and still not witness any mobility from them was another matter entirely.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to ready myself to magnify the Byakugan's reach. Doing so would deter my recovery, yes, but the direness of the situation left me with no choice.

The rush of chakra and blood overpowered the soreness of my muscles and enlivened my will for battle. I opened my eyes, ready to execute an offense if need be, when I saw the outline of bodies lying on a small clearing. I'd hoped they were the enemy. My comrades were not to be underestimated, after all. As I approached while making as little noise as possible, however, I grieved over the short extent of time I could make this wrong presumption last.

The enemy couldn't possibly have a dog with Akamaru's face. It was impossible for them to be carrying forehead protectors of the Hidden Leaf exactly where Ino, Kiba, and Choji wore them.

The fog cleared as I stepped into the clearing. I eased my Byakugan. The sight of my dead comrades came in full color, and in spite of all the red splattered about, the first that caught my eyes were of Sakura's clothes – ripped and meshed with the torn flesh of her back.

I clutched her shoulder which were warm still, and overturned her body on the rock where she lay. This physical contact with her told me the chakra in her body maintained its regular flow. She must've put a reservoir at the back of her heart also and it was the only thing keeping her alive in spite of the blood loss.

I lowered her to my lap and was about to place my hand on her chest to replenish the reservoir when she sat upright and grabbed my wrist.

We stared at each other, faces mere inches apart, and I understood what had just happened even before the chuckling of my supposedly dead comrades broke the silence in the forest. It was the scent that gave them away. Somebody believed I'd be stupid enough to mistake tomato sauce for blood.

Ino was the first to crack up and point at me. "I told you he'd go to Sakura first!"

"Of course he'd go to her!" Kiba hollered from the other end of the clearing. "If he resuscitated me first, I'd have buried you all without a second thought!"

The others joined in the teasing and bantering until Kurenai descended from the canopy with a lit torch. She gave me a sorry grin and lowered the torch to a concealed bundle of woods behind me. "Okay, everyone, mission success! Bring out the food and get yourselves warm!"

Sakura slipped off my lap and put on the jacket she had tied around her waist. "Sorry, Neji. Tradition is tradition. We figured if you were going to break it by not pulling a prank on one of us, we'd have to turn the tables on you instead."

" _Kurenai_." I rose to my feet and turned. She stood beside me, her hand on my shoulder. She explained that it wasn't anything personal – just a final attempt at fun before the examinees were declared official jounins and sent on missions that could turn out badly. "They also thought it was the only way they could force you to come out here and celebrate."

Kichirou, Mimiko, and Choji dropped a bundle of scarves around my shoulders and shoved a barbeque stick in my hand. They thanked me for being a good sport and advised me to keep warm because they planned on camping out and didn't want me to catch a cold.

Kurenai waved her hand and said I could take this time to relax. She'd chaperone and make sure this last night of fun wouldn't result to a week's stay in the hospital.

I shrugged off the scarves, dropping the barbeque stick on top of them, and collapsed on the rock. Resting my head in my hands, I dwelled in the relief of having nobody suspect my intention for choosing Sakura over them.

I swear this was the last time I'd chaperone.

 **Sakura:**

I clinked beer bottles with the rest of the examinees and sat around the bonfire, too tired from the prank and the journey combined to execute what we thought would be a wild celebration in the border of the Fire Country.

We laughed at the tomato sauce we couldn't wipe off our faces and the lousy way we'd splattered this fake blood over the grass. Mimiko had to summon an artificial fog to mask the sweetness in the air. It struck us only after this trivial accomplishment was made that, with so little visibility, we could hurt ourselves for real slashing our clothes with a kunai.

Neji joined the circle by the bonfire soon after he was finished sulking in the corner, and we all raised our bottles and shouted our thanks for his cooperation.

I made sure to steer clear of him for the duration of the celebration, primarily because it was difficult to look him in the eyes after his sincere attempt at rescuing me. I was against the plan to prank Neji, aware that his instinct would lead him to believe such an attack could only be executed by Orochimaru.

Objecting, though, would create another problem. I couldn't stop them from pulling off the prank without triggering suspicion from Kurenai, and the smart side of me decided it was best to swallow the idea of being mean to Neji in this way instead of hinting that my memory loss was a hoax to discover who in the team was a traitor.

I also didn't want him to know I was playing him. He might not have realized it, but he was trembling when he touched my shoulder and turned my body. It was the idea that perhaps in spite of my identity as his fiancé's killer, he still feared the loss of my life.

The men passed out on the ground not long after the drinking started. Half of the women, being far from sober as well, had only the strength to pull out their own sleeping bags and curl up inside them before losing consciousness.

I stretched my hand out to cover the view of the moon from where I lay on my sleeping bag, trying to sense now the presence of the enemy I'd encountered before.

Neji and Kurenai might think they were protecting me. They had no idea that after phase one of the mission I shared with Sanae, Shikamaru, Shizune, Inoichi, and Lady Tsunade, we dedicated our time and effort to keep the enemy from slipping within their midst unnoticed and breaking Konoha from the inside.

I let my hand drop to my stomach, my muscles now able to relax upon feeling no threat nearby. Somewhere in Konoha right now, Shikamaru was scouting Konoha with Shizune and Sanae for any sign of Orochimaru and his henchmen.

Shikamaru. I wondered whether he would sleep afterwards. I wondered whether the truth of our situation ever allowed him a comfortable sleep.

I hadn't slept more than a wink since the night we solved how Shikamaru beat the rebirth jutsu. Sometimes when I drew a circle in the air and recalled the icy water of the pond, I'd think I still remembered what he did right to save my life. But as soon as the first phase of our mission was over and they took the knowledge of it from me, I felt they also took with them my stamina for a relationship with him.

Perhaps it was the realization that five months of stolen kisses and curbed desires could stretch out into a year, maybe two. That threats existed in futures that hadn't happened yet but tacticians like Shikamaru could foresee. And while he was good to me even after the Pillars picked on him and his family, I felt he had no more strength to fight for me.

On nights we'd meet with Inoichi and Sanae in the underground that was our secret headquarters, Shikamaru would fight nervous ticks and tremors from having to pore over the very cause of all his current dilemmas. And although it was visible to us that he was struggling, he never acknowledged it to any of us. Not even to me. Not even when I asked if he was sure he could continue. There was the risk of endangering his health further due to stress – I was sure I could make a different arrangement with him so he could still contribute to the investigation without harming his already weakened body.

All our time together since our childhood had forced me to conclude he'd relent regardless if my medical standpoint on the matter hurt his manly ego. He'd perceive my comment as something beyond me worrying over him – his quick brain would recognize the wisdom of my advice and force him to admit it was the best course of action if we were to survive the battle in the long-haul.

Instead Shikamaru's eyes had widened and he'd slammed his hand on his desk before walking out on me. Later I found him sitting on the edge of the bed in his bunk, his hands over his face and his breathing unsteady. I was so tired from hospital work and having to sneak out to participate in our cult-like unraveling of the rebirth's secrets that I marched up to him and asked what was wrong with him. "I'm only looking out for you and this is how you respond? A thirteen-year-old genin only grinned at me after I told him I couldn't do anything to restore his burnt fingers completely but we'd keep on trying. That kid knew he'd just had his chances of becoming a shinobi lessened by half but he trusted me enough that he didn't complain."

Shikamaru stood with such force and suddenness that I doubled backwards. He looked down at me, his scowl deep enough to relay the annoyance he had yet to voice. "You want me to act like a thirteen-year-old and just nod at you when you give me orders, is that it?"

"That's not what I said."

"Then you want me to contribute at the level of a genin because that's just how strong I am right now? Makes sense."

"Shikamaru, all I meant is that you don't trust me!"

"I trust you, Sakura, but not when you try to control everything," he said. "I'm not your patient or your mission. I'm your partner in and out of this mission and – " gripping my shoulders " – I need you to be the one person who doesn't tell me what to do."

In many ways, that long overdue first argument as a couple opened the doors for many of the best and worst things we had to endure in our relationship. If, that night, we found it easy to admit to our own shortcomings and wrong judgements, we weren't as forgiving the other times.

Shikamaru avoided going out with the group as much as possible whenever I was around, and in the few times he did join our usual nights out he'd treat me as though I was invisible. I understood we couldn't make it obvious that our memories were never erased or, worse, that we were romantic, but he could've at least made eye-contact with me. What struck me hard, however, was the instance a guy hit on me right in front of them and he didn't so much as flinch when I had to punch the guy in the face to get him away from me.

There was also the case of his secretive nature. Most things about his family dilemma, I learned from Lady Tsunade and from gossip. If I hadn't decided to give him the cold shoulder, he wouldn't have realized how much I cared about those things. That while there was little I could do in public to support him, I could at least be his confidant in the gloom of the underground bunks which were our safe haven.

He used our confrontation over that to come clean with his own list if complaints against me. If I didn't want other guys coming at me, perhaps I should start dressing less like Ino. How could he approach me with his problems when there was hardly any time to speak to me? The rare chances we got to be together after five hours of looking at the rebirth scripts, we only ever had enough energy to talk about the food or bathe we craved and how we'd rather things turned out in the hospital, in his training, and in our friends' missions.

While bickering, it felt as though both of us were just waiting for the other to blur it out – that one satisfying statement that could end this difficulty we called a relationship. But we both held our tongues and dropped the matter before we could raise our voices further.

He surprised me the following week by dropping by my work station with a basket of flowers. He'd handed it to me while reading from a list I supposedly gave him, and he left with: if those aren't what you need or if there's something else you have in mind, you know where to find me.

I had to stop myself from blushing. Ino and the rest of the nurses saw it as nothing else but another errand I asked a poor shinobi to do for me, but the implications were clear and I couldn't help but smile at the fact that this was the first time he'd given me flowers. In public.

Those flowers were neither suitable for experimentation nor beneficial in any medical way. I brought my work home – the flowers categorized as one because I said so – and endured Isas and Kazuo calling me a workaholic with no love life. I didn't mind then if it meant I could sleep in my room next to the flowers Shikamaru harvested from his ancestral home.

I made the effort to repay him by conniving with Shizune. She allowed me to do his physical assessment at least twice a week, given that we promise not to do anything inappropriate while left alone. We were never sure who was watching or listening.

I knew it would eventually reach Lady Tsunade, but she could easily persuade the others that this sort of contact between Shikamaru and me was harmless. Apart from Shizune and the Hokage herself, I was the only one qualified to make accurate diagnosis of Shikamaru's health. There was already a story behind Shikamaru's injuries – an S-rank mission mistakenly ranked as B. The version of me who supposedly had no memory of the rebirth would ask no question since some supporting details in Shikamaru's files were coded to avoid raising suspicion should they be reviewed in the future. Besides, wouldn't it be more peculiar if they had to train another medic to sort Shikamaru out when I was the Hokage's apprentice?

I made sure to freshen up and wear a new set of nurse's uniform the first time I assessed him. More than speechless – a reaction I anticipated and planned to ignore – he simply gawked at me the first couple of minutes I was moving about the room preparing the equipment for his check-up. When, finally, he asked if I was doing something behind Shizune's back, I sat in front of him and injected him with his first dose of drugs. "Let's just say I managed to make her agree into handing over this responsibility to me," I said with a triumphant grin. "This way, at least, I'll be able to take care of you the way I want to _and_ talk to you without hiding in the dark."

It was in that room we were finally able to catch up with each other's day and communicate better, that I acknowledged he was correct with the way he treated me in front of our friends and he acknowledged I was reasonable in my demand to know the happenings within his clan.

"It's bothersome," he said in one session while I was measuring the rate of chakra flow in his left arm. He had his sleeves rolled up and his arm outstretched towards me. Before continuing with his remark, he brushed my cheek with his knuckles. "This is the one thing I can't seem to strategize my way around. There are no former battles like this to base our actions on, just the notion of what our relationship should be like and how far from normal it is. Sorry it can't be better."

Sometimes I wondered if I should've asked to know what he was really thinking. The more he told me, the more I understood why he kept some things to himself. In between witty remarks and warm reflections, I felt he did his best to watch out for me and our relationship. That his frustration rooted mostly from not being able to give me what he thought I deserved. It mirrored the problem he faced with his clan, of his inability to be the heir that met everybody's expectations.

During the first chuunin exams, I wouldn't have guessed his dedication could reach so far. He'd made it sound like he'd been forced into being a decoy so Naruto, Pakkun, and I could continue in our pursuit of Sasuke. Deep inside I knew his sense of responsibility to the village was greater than he would allow himself to recognize.

This realization, magnified by other circumstances in our relationship such as his health, the rarity of our encounters, and the importance of prioritizing Konoha's safety from Orochimaru and the rebirth, set the motion rolling for my lack of appetite to demand anything from him. Whether or not he sent me gifts in disguise of work, snatched my arm and pulled me inside a closet for a quick kiss, or brushed elbows with me in public, it didn't matter as much to me. I saw the effort he put in keeping us together when being together was probably not the best option for the both of us right now.

So after we discovered how he beat the rebirth, as we lay on the bed resting, I decided phase two of our mission would be conducted more efficiently if he didn't have me to distract him. Phase two, after all, would involve discovering who the traitor was within Konoha if not within the team. If he had to consider me at every turn, he might regret a decision that could save the lives of others more important than me. Like that of his father, his mother, and that adorable flab of fat who was Yutsuki Nara.

From beneath the sleeping bag, I could feel the cold morning breeze sweep past me like hands shaking me awake. The jounin exams at Suna had come with its own set of worthy distractions, but now that it was over and I was heading back to Konoha, there was no running away from the fact that Shikamaru and I had left our relationship on hiatus so quickly and in such a messy state.

He and I would have to talk.

Our rowdy group departed for Konoha near noon, fully aware that we were well behind schedule. The events of the morning happened in a whirlwind to my exhausted mind that the next I was truly awake, I was already leaping from tree branch to tree branch behind Ino, my ears barely picking up on the gossip she was telling Mimiko about the new village architect.

I shook my head and was about to comment when my foot slipped and I landed on a low-lying branch. In my attempt to recover, I put too much chakra on my right foot standing up that the branch broke and I fell like a bird without wings. I could've easily regained my composure and pretended nothing so embarrassing had just happened, but the sensation of falling held me captive. My arms stretched forward as I fell, gravity pulling me farther from my innate strength to continue.

I was sure I'd have hit the ground if a hand hadn't grabbed me a second just in time. I looked up to see Neji slung on a tree branch, holding on to me by the wrist. Once he caught my gaze, he let go.

I'd not expected the ground to be so close below that I fell on my rear. One by one, Ino, Kiba, Kurenai, and the rest of the team slowed down and stopped as hollers of my 'accident' reached them. Some laughed, saying my opponent in Suna must've hit my head hard if I couldn't even get my footing right.

Neji crouched beside me. "Is there anything wrong, Sakura?"

The weight in my chest got so heavy, I couldn't stop myself from shivering. One of the things I hated about this was how I had to keep this all to myself. More than once I nearly told Ino. I even considered approaching Neji and concealing my problems behind a petty lie. I had no one to go to, no one but myself to complain about how much I missed Shikamaru in spite of our circumstances.

Forcing a smile, I gave them a thumbs up and said, "Never been better."

 **Tsunade:**

I yawned as I sat on the floor, in the middle of the circle of scripts. Jiraiya dipped the brush in the ink pot and added the finishing touches before motioning for me to extend my arm. His footsteps on the bare room as he approached echoed like warning.

"Shadow-binding is that powerful, eh?" He pushed up the sleeve of my robe to expose my forearm. "So the kid, in the middle of that entire ruckus of the rebirth which he's never encountered before, suddenly came up with the plan to write a command upside down and play tug of war with Sakura's life?"

Jiraiya held me by the wrist as he wrote. The ink against my skin made me shiver. It still got to me - seeing death plainly before my very eyes. "That's what adrenaline does to geniuses. Of course, when I asked him how he came about that forbidden jutsu, he said all he could recall was that his grandpa often studied it in his bedroom while babysitting. We figured it was one way he kept Shikaku from finding out he was meddling with something he oathed as clan chief never to probe."

"With all the time Shikaku is taking to confirm the nature of the jutsu Shikamaru used, it's safe to assume he stayed true to his oath," he said.

"It's only a matter of time before he discovers it," I said. "The only thing holding him back is the fact that Shikamaru has no access to the scholars or any of their confidential texts, let alone forbidden things only passed down orally. He has cancelled that possibility because he thinks if he doesn't know that jutsu, then neither must his son."

Jiraiya paused. He took a deep breath and added the last script on the inside of my wrist, directly above my pulse. "If the Nara had the stamina of the Uzumaki, they'd be a dangerous clan."

"Well thank goodness, they don't. They're our best kept secret."

He lowered my wrist to the space between our feet. He looked me in the eyes. "Tsunade..."

I rolled my eyes. "Jiraiya, this is just precaution. Besides, Orochimaru will not stop himself from hunting me down if he has a valid cause. He'll know I'm a hard target, but I'm the surest catch. If I'm caught, then at least there's you left to replace me."

He swallowed the rest of his complaints and instead leaned down to press a kiss on my palm. Before I could react, though, he had already made the hand formations and ran two fingers across the length of the script. The ink sank beneath my skin like a curse, and from today onwards it would cost me my life if I spoke about the solution to the rebirth case after activating this command.

Once done, Jiraiya turned on his heels and announced he was going to the hot springs to relax. When we were children, he vowed never to risk my life in the battlefield. I thought he was boasting to get my affection, but in all the years we had worked together side by side, he had not once put me in a position wherein I would take the blow before he did.

And this - cursing me with this command because I ordered him to - made him break that vow. I wanted to tell him I was sorry for imposing this obligation on him, but I had no choice. He was the only person I trusted enough with my life, and had this life of mine only walked a different path, I wouldn't have trouble expressing myself to him.

I composed myself and returned to my office. As the Hokage of the Hidden-Leaf Village, my emotions would always have to go last.


	3. Chapter 3

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Sagana**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Three:**

 **Shikamaru:**

I settled on the chair and stared at the expanse of white board ahead of me. Lady Tsunade slapped black sheets of translucent paper on its surface and flicked a switch. The board lit up and vivified the outline of my skeleton on the paper. She straightened the one in the middle that was a magnified view of my vertebrae.

"This, Shikamaru - " she said as she motioned to the results of the x-ray scans. " - is what I call improvement. Your bones are growing stronger every day. Three days from now, we'll perform another series of x-ray scans and see whether you're fit for the program that I have outlined for you."

I clutched my knees, digging my fingertips deeper into my skin. "And how will that program help?"

She signed the paper on the clipboard that Kazuo handed her. "It's your primary step to relearning the jutsus you've used before. Kakashi has volunteered to assist in building your taijutsu skills to a respectable level. Since Kurenai has consumed her total limit of deployment outside of Konoha –a burden on my part because more and more kunoichi has taken up the role of mothering infants - she has agreed to be your instructor in ninjutsu. We've got everything sorted, Shikamaru. There's no need to look so gruff about the – "

"What a drag..." I ran my hand over my face and hunched lower. "Sometimes, I wish I were lazy to the point that I'd actually consider marrying my _fiancé_ the second she sets foot in Konoha."

She switched off the glowing board. "You might regret resorting to that so quickly."

"With all due respect, Lady Tsunade, but aren't you so intent on my recovery because you wish to continue working with me in Intelligence?" I shrugged. "I mean, any other Nara has failed to please you thus far. It'd be to your advantage to make it mandatory for me to marry the mysterious girl from the clan guard who is supposed to be so strong that she can make up for my insufficiencies which – we all know – is a _lot_."

Kazuo lingered behind the desk, pretending not to listen as he filed the numerous test results that they've produced from my body today. Lady Tsunade scowled at me and ordered Kazuo to make her a cup of black coffee. He cringed, obviously disappointed that he could no longer eavesdrop on us, and conceded to retreat from the room.

Once the door was shut, she stood in front of me and said, "I'm helping you with all my might because you and your father deserve to keep your post as clan chief and heir. If you're telling me now that you're giving up your battle out of a lazy whim, I'll go ahead and write that order for you. "

"There's a large possibility it will happen with or without mandatory orders."

"Shikamaru, Konoha survived for such a long time partly because of the politics that ruled its major clans," she said. "You knew you'd encounter something like this – albeit, nothing _exactly_ like this – and so did Shikaku. You're the last person I'd imagined to be moping in my presence. If not for your physical condition, I would have already punched you back to the ICU."

"It's better you than Sakura," I mumbled to my upturned hand. No amount of shamelessness could force me to look up at her and see her reaction. I caught her off-guard, definitely, because her left heel jerked outward as though in preparation to enter a battle stance. "She might just end my life. If not because she cares, then because it's not polite to get engaged so soon after we split. Isn't there such a rule? I've heard enough people talk about it before…"

She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry it happened. You might hate me for saying it, but right now it's probably what's best."

"I can't say it's not." Standing, I intertwined my fingers behind me and stretched. "We'll try to sort it out without causing trouble for the team."

"That reminds me, I have to be careful. Inoichi saved me last time from telling the entire team about the real progress with the rebirth jutsu."

"Must be difficult putting up an act."

"You and Sakura are doing a good job at convincing everybody of your amnesia, though."

Shizune stumbled into the room and sang her announcement that the examinees had returned. Her excitement shriveled upon seeing me – the person who should've become jounin a long time ago – and she made the awkward situation worse by asking how I felt today.

The corner of Lady Tsunade's lip twitched. She gathered her things while enumerating reminders I'd already memorized by heart, and before leaving made the offer to join her in welcoming them. "I'm sure your friends will be glad to see you."

"Maybe next time." I rolled down the sleeves of my shirt and left the room first.

The neighboring room was bustling with female interns who were organizing the medicines that were to be delivered to the shinobis. It was part of the new system that the Fifth had implemented so as to save space in the hospital and to allow the injured shinobis the comfort of recuperating in their own homes. I slipped past the wooden shelves that separated the entryway from the packing area, scanned the room for Nanami, and cleared my throat to grab her attention.

She continued to scoop pills from glass jars and drop them into plastic containers that were labelled with the recipient's full name. "Kiba's fight was rumored to be the most exciting! I still think that it's unfair because he has that gigantic furry dog to aid him but I seriously would have given up a months' worth of salary to see the fight!"

"I'm sure he was aiming to impress Ino!"

Eiko climbed her workbench and performed an exaggerated impersonation of an awe-struck Ino. They laughed. Fumiko threw a yellow pill at her. "You're just jealous because she gets the handsome guys without even trying!"

"Dream on!" Eiko jumped down the bench. "It's just because she's our senior and she's going to be jounin soon that the men are competing for her attention!"

Fumiko stuck her tongue out. "You sure about that? 'Cuz Sakura's already made history and she's not getting any luckier with the opposite sex."

"I thought she was in a relationship with Neji Hyuuga?"

"But he stopped visiting her in the hospital all of a sudden."

"You think he got her pregnant and she got an abortion and they decided to call it quits? There's no way they could have kept themselves clean with how much time they spent alone in RB3A just before Suna came to publicly promote the joint medical mission. We're talking about Neji Hyuuga – no one resists _that_!"

"But wasn't she supposed to be performing acupressure on his eyes?"

"That's foreplay," said Eiko.

"Neji chaperoned the group of examinees, didn't he?" Nanami set aside the bag of excess plastic containers and crouched in the middle of their circle, a wide grin spreading on her face. "I bet a hundred and fifty yen that Neji tried to make a move on Sakura. I think she's the only reason he agreed to chaperone our seniors."

Shiori scooted close to Nanami, her head ducked and her voice low. "Speaking of seniors, I visited Intelligence Division early this morning to deliver pain relievers to Mr. Yamanaka and I overheard his assistant, Tsuneo, talking to Shin-the-pervert-librarian about the drama in the Nara clan. I never could have guessed it! I mean, Shikamaru's been going back and forth the hospital with Lady Tsunade for five months straight now but it never occurred to me that his current limp cost him his inheritance."

Eiko pouted. "Who wants to be head of their clan at a time like this? War's bound to happen and I'm sure he's grateful that he doesn't have to-

I cleared my throat louder this time. Nanami, Eiko and Fumiko jumped to their feet. I raised my hand as greeting and said, "Don't mind me. I'm just here to collect my vest and my medicines from Nanami and I'll be on my way."

Eiko and Fumiko bowed their heads. Nanami gaped at me.

Heat curdled within the confines of my skull and cut my patience short. I stepped around their workspace and marched behind Nanami to find my things in one of the pigeon holes. Spotting them – finally – I walked across their circle, stopped by the shelves, and looked back at them. "You might want to add in your stories the fact that Ino Yamanaka was part of the team that defeated the Akatsuki who killed our master and Sakura recently made public her discovery on how to lengthen your life expectancy in the battlefield – they can fool around with all the men they want and still be better than you will ever be. Talk about me all you want – I'm flattered that you're wasting your breath on me – but never talk like that again about my friends and especially about my family."

I punched the shelf. They gasped in unison. I marched out as fast as I could.

I let my feet lead me down two flights of stairs and to the back of the hospital where the shortcut to the rehabilitation garden was. To me, there were no other people in this damned place. I was alone and I was drowning in the boiling waters of my temper and I could not come up with a decent means to vent.

My feet halted at the corner where a dislocated glass door led out to the garden. My breath escaped my lungs, slowly, quietly, because the stupid part of me worried that such a subtle action could wake the girl who was dozing on the metal bench.

I stepped closer to scrutinize Sakura. Her left leg was pulled to her chest, successfully pinning a shuffle of parchments in-between. A Styrofoam cup of steaming coffee balanced on her right knee, its steadiness reinforced by the two fingers she had used to bulwark it. Her head slid left and right against the wall, and the manner her mouth would gape at each drop made me smirk.

Her head dwindled in the middle. It inched forward, dragging the rest of her body along.

I dove and threw my arms to catch her shoulder. Her eyes shot open the second my skin touched hers. She folded her left arm and pressed her elbow against my neck. The cup jumped off her knee. The coffee splashed on our legs. The parchments burst sideways. I snatched those that escaped to the left and she snatched those to the right.

The remaining parchments that flew past our reach floated to the ground. Coffee drenched the paper and smudged the ink.

"Shit." Sakura slammed those in her possession to the bench and picked up the wet bunch. "Did I fall asleep?"

I crouched next to the puddle and helped her. "Yeah. You were gone quiet deep. Tired?"

She shook the parchment in the air. It sprinkled coffee on her blouse. "Suicidal, actually. I've got loads of forms to fill out and it doesn't count that I've just survived hell week in Suna."

"Surviving is what matters."

Sakura caught my gaze, as though recalling just now who I was and what had transpired between us. Her hands lowered to her sides and she opened her mouth to say something. No words came.

"I've got to go." I put the parchments on the bench to dry and wiped my hands on my trousers. "There's a bunch of texts they want me to inspect back in Intelligence," I said.

She grabbed my elbow. I turned my head, first to the wall ahead of me, and then craned my neck to see her. "What is it, Sakura?"

"How's your health?" She sat on the bench, tucked her hair behind her ears, and rubbed her hands once against her thighs. "I know tons of people have been asking you that question but I wanted to tackle it as a medic to a patient...Shikamaru?"

I sat on the opposite end of the bench. "Why? Will you still be the one to assess me?"

She cast her eyes on the mess that separated us. "…You look a lot stronger already."

"I feel stronger. More because it's been demanded than because I am."

"Let me just make sure they've been maintaining your reservoir just as I've instructed them to." Sakura knelt before me and flattened her palm on my chest. The warmth of her chakra seeped through my shirt and spread throughout my chest. Before I could stop myself, I'd already put my hand above hers.

My heart beat fast at the fear that she'd pull away. I wasn't sure whether what she did next was to calm me down or to assure me we were okay, but while her forehead was pressed against our hands, I didn't care. Two weeks was a long time. The very idea of her so close to me made the day lighter.

She sniffed, used her hair to hide her face as she wiped a teardrop, and rose to her feet. She grinned at me. "Seems everything's as they should be."

"That's a…that's a relief."

She walked to the slanted glass door, her arms stretching down behind her and pushing her chest up as she inhaled. At last, she turned to face me. "Ino and Choji were amazing during the exams. We're having a barbeque on – wait, we haven't even finalized the date! I'll make sure you're informed so you can tag along."

I pressed my back against the wall and squinted at the sparse view of the garden outside. Sunlight retreated as the shadows of the storm-clouds hovered over the hospital. The grass bent with the wind's urging. "I'm not sure that will be good for me but I'll see what I can do."

"Don't tell me the Pillars are having you followed. Even your father goes to the pub every once in a while."

"Who knows?" I yawned. "They'll do anything to assassinate my character and remove me as heir."

"You talk about it like it's a simple matter."

"It is. Without all the sentimental ties, it's not as complicated as it seems."

"You're not going to give up, are you?"

"Sakura," I said. "Giving up isn't always the easiest route out of a sticky situation."

She frowned at me. "Are you implying something?"

"Of course not. Do you think I'm implying something?"

"Of course not," she said, unusually high-pitched. "It's important to take note, though, that some people close doors not because they want to but because it might be necessary."

"It's normal to over-think things sometimes but you should stop it. Plus, you're working yourself to the grave. Taking a break might solve the problem and give you a fresh outlook. And I'll do with less medical advice and more physical labor. I appreciate your concern, though. Thanks."

"You're saying my judgement was clouded?"

"It depends," I said, standing so we were looking each other in the eyes. "Who decided it was necessary to close the door?"

"The decision doesn't have to be mutual when it's obviously the right choice but the other party doesn't want to acknowledge it."

"The other party is far from ready to give up on you."

"But you'll have to give me up eventually." She stepped back and embraced herself. "I'm sure the Pillars wouldn't be celebrating if they found out you're romantic with the same person who got you injured so badly."

I peered around the corner to scan the corridor. One careless move was all it would take to bring us down. "Sakura. You didn't get me injured. We've talked about this before."

"Try to see if from my perspective, why don't you?" Sakura cradled the parchments and the empty cup as she stepped around me to rejoin the rest of the hospital.

 **Sakura:**

At home – in my apartment – I leaned my face so close to the mirror that I could see the particles of the red lipstick that had smudged outside the perimeter of my lower lip. I rubbed the length of my forefinger against it and the smudge left. A red mark on my chin replaced it.

Blindly, I reached my bedside table for the jacket that Ino lent me. She had trespassed my apartment three hours prior the end of my shift in the hospital and rummaged my closet for what she called 'a deliciously nasty outfit that will make the men drool'. She had expected to find nothing close to a nasty outfit within the confines of my abode but had turned the place over, nevertheless, in the miniscule hope that she could be wrong. Upon confirming that nothing had changed in my 'boring' fashion taste, she purchased a brown leather dress for me and left it on my bed as a surprise.

The jacket was an article of clothing I had failed to return to her three weeks before we left for Suna. She'd be mad that I would use it to cover my bare back but I'd rather fight her than catch a cold.

I sat on my bed and frowned at my reflection on the lengthwise mirror. This zip up dress had looked gorgeous on my body only a second ago. Now, all I could see was a snotty little medic who was going to venture the village for wild experiences while a genius slept on his bed, willing the medicines to provide him the miracle he needed to succeed his father as clan chief.

I would've invited him for real if being with me could save his life.

I dragged the zipper down my torso. The dress came loose, freeing my skin and easing my lungs. I stopped midway. I was suddenly unsure of what I was doing. How could I explain my guilt to the rest of my friends? We deserved one night of liberty to inhabit our adolescence and to enjoy the village we vowed to protect, didn't we?

Besides, I would be helping no one by punishing myself. I zipped up the dress, adjusted the straps over my shoulders, and slipped on the jacket.

Tonight, I would celebrate my pending promotion to jounin.

Tomorrow, I would find a way to support Shikamaru in the dark.

 **Shikaku:**

I wouldn't dare count the exact number of days it had been since we first convened to address the issue of the rebirth case. A part of me – the young and hopeful part that remained in this tired body– had believed that the issue died the moment Ayano Hyuuga's man-made pond in the Third Training Ground had been filled with dirt over a year ago. I had volunteered to oversee the clean-up that Danzo organized, making sure that my family's forest lodging, the Fifth Laboratory, the containment area, and the Third Training Ground retained no hint of the events that transpired during the rebirth case.

Enough had been done to my son. I promised myself that he would return to his home once he had recovered.

Reality erupted in a manner so different from my intended path that, for the six days that Shikamaru had to recuperate in the ICU from Inoichi's mind infiltration, I was struck dumb. The battle was not over. To this moment in time, I still could not process the fact that Orochimaru wanted something from my son.

Securing him and Sakura had been priority. Now that we had adapted a system to manage that, our next objective was to discover how Shikamaru beat the rebirth and make sure Orochimaru never got his hand on that intel. This was a dangerous pursuit that placed us in a vulnerable position, but it was the only way we could know how to prevent Orochimaru from causing more casualties in his search for the answer. Should we fail in extinguishing this hazard, Danzo wouldn't have trouble finding cause for our execution.

Lady Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, Nohara, Inoichi and Neji joined me around the table. All together, we stared at the model of a pond at the centre with the rebirth jutsu's script encircling it. The light bulb overhead flickered thrice before it retained a steady glow. We shifted our weight to our other leg, crossed our arms, rubbed our necks, sighed, and flinched – whatever action could relay our frustration over the matter at hand.

There was little progress over the months and, with me refusing to work with Sanae, the team had to work around her contribution and mine and see which gave them a better lead. She may have spent most of her life studying our clan but she'd never know them the way I did as their chief.

Lady Tsunade, as though reading my mind, said that at least Sanae and I agreed on one thing: Shikamaru's blood seal did half of the trick. "Kakashi, Nohara, tell me you at least have something helpful to say about the blood seal."

Nohara spread the pile of documents she had reviewed and marked X with a red marker. "There is no basis for this text in anything Shikamaru learned in the Academy or in his studies of the Nara Clan's jutsu's as far as our investigations go. If the blood seal Shikamaru used indeed had a greater purpose or is a forbidden jutsu, then either Sanae or Sir Shikaku should've known."

"I'm afraid we've ran out of resources, even with the texts delivered from the Nara clan's scholars." Kakashi turned to me. "The command written in blood opposed the rebirth command in a certain way only a Nara specialist can confirm. It'll take years to uncover and learn these commands and how to manipulate them properly, even for me. Unless, of course, we can somehow gain access to the confidential knowledge passed down orally from one scholar to another."

Neji's scowl disappeared, his concentration on the miniature pond at the center disrupted by this revelation. "Manipulate? You mean they can be reordered and adjusted to achieve specific results?

"It seems so," he said. "But only Sir Shikaku can say so for sure."

I sometimes hated how fast Kakashi caught up to new leads I had obtained only weeks prior. In all the time I served as advisor to the Hokage in peace and in battle, I knew timing to be a lethal weapon. With Kakashi in the same field, however, I never had the luxury of time to stand on a stable theory before he could act on the same knowledge.

"That's not exactly true," I said. "Our shadow commands are still bound by the same laws that govern all justus. The only difference is that shadows are... a bit more flexible but that also makes it more fragile."

Nohara glimpsed Kakashi. I realized then that they had formed a theory they would not share with the group unless proven credible, just as I had chosen and would always choose to do the same. Now I felt what they must've felt whenever I withheld information from them. "There is no mention of his shadow ever being used in the rescue, though," she told us. "We can't revisit the memory now that it's no longer there, and we checked Shikamaru's account for any mention of its use while he was inside the pond. There's none. Not even an intention from Shikamaru."

"Why would he have written a command and not activate it by summoning his shadow?" Neji asked.

Lady Tsunade snapped her fingers at me. "Shikaku, recreate the blood seal that your son used."

I turned to Shizune and she hurried to the farther end of the room to fetch a paint brush and a pot of red ink. She slipped the inkpot on the table and handed me the brush.

Neji asked if this was a safe thing to do. Lady Tsunade retorted that every element in the model was a dummy incapable of activating a rebirth jutsu. She then snickered and added, "We can attempt the ceremony on live humans to get a valuable result but that would tempt Danzo to jump on our backs and have the Konoha Council chop our necks with kitchen knives."

I dipped the tip of the brush into the pot. Red liquid clung to it. I leaned over the table and wrote over the black ink. Silence doubled the weight of the atmosphere in the room. The light flickered again, making me pause long enough to remember why I had opposed to the idea of convening in Lab Five. Still, it was the safest place to revive the rebirth case.

Shizune chuckled wanly. "You really loath Danzo, don't you?"

"Don't _you_?" she asked. "If you people think that he's our ally, you're wrong. He warned me that he'll have me executed the second time the rebirth case threatens Konoha."

The hinges of the door screeched. We turned to the ANBU who had entered the room. He bowed, stood aside, and revealed the last member of our team.

"Jiraiya!" Lady Tsunade reached for something to throw at him but found none. "You're an hour late!"

Master Jiraiya scanned the faces in the room before sauntering towards the Fifth. "Easy, woman. The work you assigned to me isn't the simplest thing I've taken on in my career, you know. Naruto's back in the village safe and sound. No, he hasn't got any lead on Sasuke – thank goodness. I am worried, however, that I don't have any leads on Orochimaru either. Five months of silence after Kabuto's appearance on the hospital bridge isn't a good sign, Tsunade. I'm telling you: it's not a good sign at all." He peered over my left shoulder and hooted. "We're back to square one! All that separate research and missions at daylight is killing this team, isn't it? That's not Shikamaru's blood, is it? Haha, I'm kidding, Shikaku. Inoichi, did you meet that woman I told you about? The brunette I saw coming out of the hot springs? She's your type, isn't she?"

Inoichi's cheeks burned a bright pink. He cleared his throat and attempted a neutrial response. Being his best friend, I felt it my responsibility to salvage him from this sea of embarrassment; I announced that his girlfriend had not a single strand of brown hair on her head.

Master Jiraiya whistled. Lady Tsunade grabbed his hair, kicked his knee, and scolded him about the importance of this meeting. "We don't have time for your games so before I lose my temper completely – "

"You're all so serious!" He tugged his hair free from her grip and motioned to Nohara, who had resumed inspecting the script from lower angles. "Follow her example! Look at it from new perspectives! I taught Minato that!"

"The assault that happened in the hospital bridge would be a good way to begin the application of that new perspective," I said, forming parallel dots above and below a thick stroke of black line. "For starters, we have no coherent idea of the mark's true nature."

"The Fifth said it's a controlling jutsu," Neji said.

"It could have taken many forms." She dipped her finger into the inkpot and drew on the white table. "It could have been a foundation for Kabuto to do much worse than control Shikamaru's body for a limited span of time. To escape Konoha or to steal an item leading back to the rebirth jutsu – we'll never know."

I withdrew the brush and studied the red script for the final time. I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off when I noticed Neji roll his shoulder backwards and rotate his neck. He saw me and said, "I'm alright. The beds in Suna were stiff, that's all."

"Do you recall feeling anything unusual before you lost consciousness? In the bridge? After the attack?"

"...I was overwhelmed by pain. My senses were hazed, sir."

"He lost his heartbeat three times," said the Fifth. "It's an indication that the full form of the controlling jutsu would have been impossible to reverse without killing the subject. Sakura would be dead by now had Neji not intervened in time."

"Sakura felt the enemy approach Shikamaru."

"Shikamaru had a vague sense of the enemy's presence, too," Kakashi said.

Neji transferred to the Fifth's side to see the marks she had drawn. "But Sakura's inclinations had been more succinct. Maybe it's because she was the one who experienced the rebirth jutsu?"

"How come Shikamaru felt something as well?" Shizune scanned our reactions, as though daring us to answer. "It's impossible that entering the pond during the rebirth ceremony caused that."

Red paint smeared my fingers. I wiped them on the edge of the table, stopped, and checked my thumb. Nohara saw me do this and said, "Wait, it's not impossible – not really. Shikamaru had a cut on his thumb from where he drew blood to write around the pond. His exposure to the rebirth caused the heart failure. He could have established a connection with the enemy in the same manner Sakura did, even only by accident. They were all exposed to the rebirth virus."

"We're not sure the rebirth's virus can create connections. At most, it was only supposed to assist the transferrance of the elements that would instigate the rebirth itself and Shikamaru was not prepped for the rebirth," Kakashi said. "That's why it tried to kill his heart instead. The rebirth did not know what is should do in Shikamaru's body."

Master Jiraiya tapped his foreigner on the overlapping scripts. "The answer lies in these two opposing commands. Make the use of blood of paramount consideration in whatever hypothesis you'll come up with. That Hiroshi did mention that the rebirth jutsu cannot succeed without a deep and personal connection between the predator and the vessel."

"You mean to say that Shikamaru's blood could have disturbed the stability of the pond while it was injecting itself in the plasma of Sakura's cells; hence making the jutsu dysfunctional through the unique composition of his own blood," I said.

Nohara raised her hand slightly to call our attention. "Or it could be that Shikamaru's blood – which Mr. Shikaku said has disturbed the stability of the pond – also managed to break the personal connection between Kana and Sakura. That connection could have been instigated through their blood and Shikamaru's addition to that equation made it lose its balance."

"As a third party?" asked Kakashi. "Therefore confusing the rebirth virus of who is the vessel and who is the predator?"

Inoichi grumbled his disapproval. "That's baseless. Kana's blood was never involved in the ceremony. Nothing indicates that Kana and Sakura's blood were vital elements to the rebirth."

"What if they made Sakura drink a drop or two beforehand?"

"Still baseless." Lady Tsunade stepped back and held her forehead. "We're not getting closer to a credible answer. If I were Orochimaru, I'd surely want the boy who found the major flaw of my sick jutsu in order to correct it and realize my dreams of immortality blah blah blah. Right now the flaw can be the addition of Shikamaru's blood on the pond or the script he wrote-"

"Using his blood," said Master Jiraiya.

"Using his blood," she conceded. "Shikaku, you have nothing special in your blood, do you? Come clean."

I lifted my hands in surrender. "Not that I know of, milady. I doubt that Shikamaru's blood, in particular, is what Orochimaru is seeking."

She stared at me, her gaze freezing me in my position. "Speaking of doubts, I'm glad neither Shikamaru nor Sakura have questioned the matter of their selective amnesia. Inoichi, would it be practical to check on the status of their memories? We can always tell them that it's mandatory since we didn't expect amnesia to be a side-effect of their injuries."

"I'll see what I can do about that, milady."

Neji jolted, as though waking up from a trance. "Sakura has a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night. At first I thought she was having nightmares, but after a few more occurrences I became more alert in case she sensed an enemy nearby."

Lady Tsunade rubbed her temples and groaned. Master Jiraiya ran his hand across her back to soothe her. "We need an answer," she said.

I glanced at the wall clock above the door. "I wish Yei Hano would arrive in Konoha sooner than the date agreed upon."

"That trump card of yours better be useful, Shikaku."

"I'm certain, milady."

Master Jiraiya looked back and fro the Fifth and me. "Who's Yei Hano?"

I had imagined I could keep things to myself for a while longer, but for timing to be my weapon, I had to give them hints now. Not that I didn't want to assist Nohara and Kakashi in uncovering the purpose of the blood seal - the last thing I wanted was to be our team's enemy - but there were shadows in my family I'd rather they left alone. "We don't have anything special in our blood, and I've never in my life seen the blood seal Shikamaru used, but I've been speaking to our scholars in secret and what came to mind is something highly unlikely but...shadow binding used to be more fatal. My great, great grandfather redesigned the binding technique so it would not cost the binder his life or his sanity when dealing with an enemy."

Lady Tsunade scowled at me. "And I'm hearing this only now because...?"

"As chief, my responsibility is to watch over my clan and retain their loyalty. Learning our forbidden jutsus would only lead to an encore of my forefather's madness. My people would not be following me out of trust, but out of fear," I said. "It has been decided since that tragedy that children not gifted in shadow binding would be keepers of our secrets. With Shikamaru's current predicament with the Pillars, I cannot risk suspicion by probing the scholars for such matters."

The displeasure in her face eased and turned into surprise. "Hence, Yei Hano."

Master Jiraiya flailed his arms and stomped one foot. "Who the hell is Yei Hano? How many times do I have to ask?"

I stood straight and put my hands behind my back as I made the announcement. "Yei Hano is to be Shikamaru's wife, if he should permit it and circumstances demand it. More than securing my son's inheritance, however, her presence in my house would enable me to acquire the necessary intel to decipher this mystery Shikamaru made."


	4. Chapter 4

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Sagana**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

 **Sakura:**

The barbeque restaurant was crowded. I squeezed myself between bodies that were either too sweaty or too smelly for human tolerance. I shoved the ones who refused to move and pretended to have not seen them altogether. They swore aloud and turned to accost me but were immediately shut up by my leather dress.

One of the waiters called my name as I was stumbling inside and fighting for a space to move in. I shouted 'Tenten' and he jabbed his thumb behind him. I struggled to the reserved sector of the restaurant and found Tenten, Hinata, Shino, Lee, Choji, and Kiba already seated and enjoying a glass of beer.

"Where's Ino?" I asked as I sat myself beside Tenten.

She grabbed my shoulders. "That dress can flatter any breast-less woman!"

Blood drained from my face and pooled in my ears. "I am not breast-less," I hissed.

Choji, Kiba, Shino, and Lee turned their heads the other way. I noticed that my fist was already raised in the air, trembling. Tenten laughed and patted my back. "Seriously, it suits you like a battle outfit! Lose the jacket, Sakura. We're here to have fun! Who knew you weren't breast-less?"

Hinata leaned back to see past Tenten and greet me. I smiled at her, noting her satin top and black skirt. I made a motion of hacking Tenten's neck, to which she giggled and gave me the permission to assault.

A plate shattered on the other end of the table. I peered at Kiba, who had frozen midway to collecting the ceramics with one hand and sticking his chopsticks into the platter of cooked beef strips with the other. Choji raced me to inquiring of his dumb expression. When no insult could retract him from his petrified state, we followed his gaze to the narrow hall filled with people.

Ino glided to our direction with her chin up and her hips swinging side to side. The men parted to let her pass. Even the women and the children poked their heads out of their booths to watch her.

She rounded our table and sat on the cushion next to Kiba. He stared at her from the corner of his eye. She touched his cheek and peeked at the broken plate. "Did Sakura attack you?"

"Zip it, Ino." I pointed at her leather dress. "You set me up!"

Choji laughed and his cheeks wobbled. "Kiba, you have to start believing that Ino's your girlfriend."

She glanced at her dress and then at mine. "Oh! Didn't I leave you a note that I bought matching dresses for us?"

"I wouldn't be so accusatory if that note existed."

"You must have missed it."

Tenten inspected Ino's dress. "So that's how it's supposed to look."

I punched her arm. "Don't ask for me in the hospital when you dislocate your shoulders again – I'll be too busy to fix you."

Kiba wiped the sweat along his jawline. "The gods might require something big in return for giving me a girlfriend that looks this good."

Shino fished fifty yen from his front pocket and elbowed Choji. "I bet it'll only take fifteen minutes before Kiba has to fend off admirers."

Choji felt his pockets. "I think I'm short on money right now. I'll pay you sixty that it'll take thirty minutes."

"Twenty minutes." Tenten slammed a hundred yen on the table. "Fifty won't do, Shino. Cough it out."

Shino added another fifty yen to his bet.

Kiba hooked his arm around Ino. "You guys are making fun of me again!"

"Don't start a fight, Kiba." Ino filled their plates with tempura and sashimi. "Isn't Akamaru resting at your home? He's tired from combat and so are you. No fighting, okay? You're not the most suave when you're drunk, too."

Hinata checked her wallet. "I've got a hundred yen. I'll take Tenten's side."

"Twenty minutes it is," proclaimed Lee, adding his money to the table. "Sakura, what's your bet?"

I checked the people in the adjacent hallway. "Hey, isn't Neji coming?"

"He's preoccupied with being mysterious with his 'duties' but I made sure he'll come." Tenten nudged my arm and winked at me. "Why? You miss him?"

"I was going to bet that he'd be the one to fight in Kiba's behalf again just like he's the one who always stops Lee's drunken outrage – sorry, Lee – but since he won't be here soon enough..." I tossed a hundred yen to the heap of cash on the table. "I'll settle for splitting the money with Tenten, Hinata, and Lee. Twenty minutes."

Tenten beamed at us. "Great! Now let's eat!"

Kiba maintained his grip on Ino's shoulder the entire evening. Nobody approached us to flirt with Ino, unfortunately, because news had apparently spread that everybody in our table had recently been promoted to jounin. That wasn't particularly true yet, but it flattered us that people had no doubt about our ability to pass the exams.

We ate and drank and behaved better than we used to. It was safe to assume that this change was brought about by the awareness of the villagers' hopes of us. Perhaps it was sinking into our consciousness, too, that our promotion weighed heavier than we originally believed it should. The villagers expected us to be dignified and chivalrous in a manner that Kakashi, Kurenai, Gai, Shikaku, and Inoichi appeared to be.

They had no clue as to what the nature of those people truly were; if they did, the profession of being a shinobi would be tarnished forever by the reality of our human vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, we had to sustain a certain image for the sake of earning their confidence. They had to be able to hope for the best and for them, the jounins were the best.

Tenten covered her mouth and burped. Lee hiccupped. Hinata finished her glass of beer and coughed.

"Aw, it sucks that Shikamaru isn't here!" Tenten rubbed her belly. "Who'll strategize our way home?"

Choji swallowed the food in his mouth and chuckled. "Shikamaru did have a knack for telling which two people should assist each other in going home. Didn't anybody invite him? Ino?"

Kiba shook Ino's shoulder. "Hey, you were supposed to invite Shikamaru. You said you would."

"I didn't." She looked up and her eyes found mine. "That would have been heartless, don't you think? First, he's not fit to enter the jounin exams. Second, he has that clan feud to mind. Having him 'strategize' in behalf of our drunken asses is too cruel when we can't do anything to help him. It's unfair."

Choji closed his mouth and lowered his bowl of gyudon. "I visited him in his house after I unpacked my things. He said he's doing okay and that they're already working with a solution to the feud. I waited for him to tell me more but he wouldn't. It's like he doesn't trust me anymore."

I teased a beef strip with the notion of fitting as many as possible into my mouth to keep it shut, but I couldn't help myself. "It's not that he doesn't trust you, Choji," I said. "I'm sure you misunderstood. Perhaps he intends to say more once there's good news. We've just come back from the exams and I think he's thoughtful enough not to steal our thunder."

Choji curled his lips up in a smile. "Thanks, Sakura."

"Since when did you become such an expert on Shikamaru, Forehead?" Ino leaned forward on the table and cupped her face. "Tell me. I'm curious."

I gulped down the remainder of my beer. "How can I not be? I do his physical assessment once a week and I actually pay attention to my patients. _All_ of my patients. You'll learn more about them if you start caring about your job, Pig."

"Alright, alright, break it up." Kiba slashed his hand in the air between us and diverted our attention back on what to do next. He later added that although he hated to admit it, the gang was not as much fun incomplete.

Lee hiccupped and swayed left and right. "Naruto's not here also."

"He's in Konoha!" Hinata blurted. "I saw him with Master Jiraiya."

"I did, too!" Tenten said. "He was carrying the poor boy on his back and I think he was going to drop him off to his apartment to rest. Was unconscious like a baby who just finished his bottle of milk. Really, Shikamaru shouldn't be so upset about the jounin exams when one of ours is still a genin."

Setting aside my plate, I decided that I would remain sober enough to tend to Naruto's injuries later in the evening. He never came home to Konoha without sporting at least two fatal wounds. That Naruto...I wondered if he encountered Sasuke.

Ino scooted closer to Kiba for warmth. "Let's stop pitying Shikamaru. He'll join us once he's ready. I'm sure of it. Right, Choji?"

The barbeque restaurant transformed into a bubble of deafening chatter and laughter ten minutes later. We were still stiff from the journey to Konoha and the noise wasn't helping our tolerance for raucous environments. Shino suggested that we head home but Tenten insisted that we visit a karaoke bar. Everybody agreed on the condition that no one would go wild with the songs.

We filed out of the restaurant with one boy escorting one girl to create balance. Lee walked beside me in the main road with Kiba and Ino following our trail. Tenten kept Choji engaged in animated conversation. Shino and Hinata walked in silence.

Lee spotted his favorite karaoke bar and dashed inside without our permission. Tenten marched after him. Ino told Kiba that she'd stay outside to stretch her legs and breathe in fresh air. She'd follow inside in a couple of minutes.

Kiba kissed her lips quick and wrapped her in his jacket to keep her warm. When he was inside the bar, I assured Ino that Shikamaru would be fine. She forced a smile and shooed me.

 **NEJI:**

Laboratory Five reeked of death's stench. I failed to realize this until I was maneuvering past the crowd in the main road and absorbing the energy that live people exuded. The waiter at the barbeque restaurant relayed to me Tenten's message that the gang had headed to a karaoke bar. Which of the dozens of karaoke bars they chose to terrorize, she forgot to tell.

As I was dragging my feet on the road, fatigued and hungry, I spotted a group of men who were repeatedly glancing at the mouth of a nearby alley. My eyes travelled in that direction and found their reason for staring valid.

Ino Yamanaka donned two jackets – the bigger one presumably belonging to Kiba – and a short blonde hair that was brushed back to reveal the length of her pale neck. Her leather dress hugged the curves of her body and left her legs bare for admiration. She lifted her head above the crowd and squinted at the distance. Turning, she saw me.

"Oi!" Ino waved her hand in the air. I glimpsed the open door of the karaoke bar and back at her spot in the alleyway. She stepped out of the darkness. "Neji!"

I entered the sidewalk to avoid the traffic of people. She tapped her heels against the pavement, perhaps to keep warm. I ducked as I passed a dumpling stand and asked her whether Tenten assigned her to watch out for me.

"No. I wanted to stretch my legs. Been sitting for hours." She tipped her head towards the karaoke bar. "You're gonna chaperone us again in there?"

"I have no plans of defending your boyfriend in a brawl, Ino. No, I'm not going to chaperone you."

"Oh." She scoffed. "So you're here because Tenten threatened you again. I can't believe you're letting a girl bully you into doing things that only seem to agonize you."

I frowned, hoping to restrain myself from cringing at the mention of her name."Tenten is anything but female when attempting to get what she wants. Anyway, do _you_ want anything from me?"

She overlapped the hems of her jackets over her dress, shielding her cleavage from the view of strangers. "Look..uhm...dad made me promise not to stick my nose into the whole... _rebirth case_... but-"

I stepped closer to her, forcing her to retreat into the alley. Her blue eyes glowed in the dark. I focused on them. "Your memories of it are supposed to be repressed. What did you do?"

"What did _I do?_ " She sucked in air, ready to shout her defense, and stopped when a thought dawned on her. She exhaled and let the heat drain from her cheeks. "Y-you mean you actually think that I'm so powerful that I can reorder my own memories?"

I arched my left eyebrow. "You are a Yamanaka, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah..." She smirked. "Yeah, I can do that – with some practice, I guess – but it wasn't my doing this time. Dad has trouble infiltrating the mind of another Yamanaka and now that you know that, you can't tell anybody else because that's his greatest weakness. Promise me."

"Fine. I promise."

"Good."

"So he did not repress your memories of the case?"

"I resisted," she mumbled and shrugged her right shoulder. "It's not that I wanted to participate further into the case – dad doesn't trust my skills enough to allow that – but I couldn't comply to the repressing of my memories when it came down to it. He made me swear instead to go on acting as though it never happened. The Hokage knows about our deal. She doesn't believe I can do the case any harm. But I couldn't trust myself either, apparently, because after we visited Shikamaru, Sakura, and Sai in the ICU, it struck me that I couldn't pretend as though nothing extreme ever happened to all of us. To him and Sakura, especially. You should've seen me when Shikamaru asked me out and we went on a date. I had to back out from our romantic relationship in less than twenty-four hours! I-I did like him but it-it wasn't going to work out after he chose Sakura over me once. The guy doesn't fucking remember it, either. Damn him."

"...Ino?"

"What?"

"Are you sure you want to indulge me with your...feelings?"

She flushed. "That's-that's not my intention! I'm not sharing these things because I want your sympathy! I...I'm being generous with my personal life because you have to know that despite my hurts and the awkwardness that has settled between Shikamaru and me, he'll always be my teammate. He's crumbling, Neji, and I don't want to stay away from him simply because I hate him for dumping me once so now I want to know what's really happening in the rebirth case. Neji, I want to know how I can help Shikamaru without hinting the truth. You're the only one who'll allow me to do so. Please, Neji. Please?"

"Have you visited him and asked him how he's doing?"

She shook her head and said, "I'm not good at formulating words of wisdom in the spur of a moment! I don't want to know the problem and just... _know_. I want him to feel like he can depend on me for solutions."

I pondered on this. Ino's admirers had vanished. A new group of teenage boys and girls occupied their spot, joking and sharing each other's food. "Your help might prove useful now more than ever," I said. "I'll have to consult with the Hokage before surrendering the confidential details to you. For now, however, you can do the team a big favor by raising Shikamaru's morale."

"You need a cheerleader? Is this a joke?"

"His mind is unpredictable. With the Pillars probing his health, he might be tempted to look into the supposed mission that got him injured in the first place. We want him focused on the present instead of the past. Raising his morale can do that."

"I can do what you want." She nodded to herself. "Yes. I can cheer him up. I'll be convincing, He'll believe me."

"That's just the beginning. The ulterior motive is to be his confidant so it will be easier to know if he's sensing the enemy the way Sakura sensed it at the bridge five months ago."

"Got it."

I stared down at her. She was a Yamanaka indeed, but she wasn't brilliant in shielding her emotions from scrutiny. She flexed her fingers and tapped her heels, hinting me of her real agenda. "Ino, do you still have feelings for Shikamaru?"

"No! I have a boyfriend! I love Kiba! What the hell, Neji?" She sidestepped to peer at the karaoke bar.

"That ought to be the truth," I said. "I don't want you to get emotionally involved. That will complicate the conundrum Shikamaru has found himself in."

"Can you drop the formal language and say it like an ordinary person?"

I, too, found myself glancing at the karaoke bar. "He has a fiancé, Ino. He needs this woman to maintain his position as the heir. We don't need you to make it any harder for him to choose the right path."

Ino touched her hair, bowed her head, and took a deep breath. "And-and Sakura? Will she be in any trouble?"

"All I can tell you is that she won't be happy in the coming days."

"I should never have expected an easy answer from you."

"Please be a good friend to her," I said, hoping I didn't sound desperate. "It is unkind for me to ask that of you especially after hearing of your heartbreak due to their love affair – their _forgotten_ love affair – but you are now the closest I have to an ally in guaranteeing their safety in Konoha."

"Yeah...yeah...a fiancé, huh?" She laughed aloud. "Well, I'm glad that Sakura doesn't remember loving that idiot Shikamaru. 'Cuz it's been five months and I can't believe that news stings the way it does for _me_."

I touched the scar on my neck. It itched. "Forget that you have the slightest of feelings left for him – it's the easiest means to succeed."

 **Shikamaru:**

ANBU sentries gazed at me with their hollow eyes and remained unmoving even after I'd stopped in front of the double doors to conference room. Both men did a series of hand formations that released the seal around the room, making the doors groan as they breathed loose. I pushed them open and took my time adjusting to the bright lighting. Inoichi raised his head from his hands and squinted to recognize me. "Shikamaru?"

"It's me." I took in his drooped eyes and lousy posture. "Stressed?"

"It's too obvious to deny," he said.

"I'm guessing Ino being out of your house isn't helping."

He kneaded his temples. "It would certainly help ease my mind if she'd stop being childish."

"How long has Ino been out of your house?"

Sanae emerged from the backroom flipping through a dossier. Today her hair was dyed black and cut at shoulder length. I'd have dismissed it as another one of her attempts at looking younger when light touched the swollen bruise on her right cheekbone.

She sat across from Inoichi and passed him the file. "The same problems will scar you with old age, Inoichi. You have enough skilled men in your disposal. Have them beat up her boyfriend into a bloody pulp and drag her back to your house. She's a skilled shinobi – according to you – but she has a long way to go to if she wants to earn the right to be bitch to her father."

"Thank you for your concern, Sanae," he said. "But I'd rather not give my daughter any more reason to hate me."

"She'd hate you if you were sleeping with me, Inoichi. The girl you're seeing doesn't even look like she can stand an ant bite."

I stood and excused myself. "I'll leave you two to talk about your personal…business. There might be something in the backroom I'll find useful."

Sanae pointed her forefinger at me and then at the chair. "Sit down, Shikamaru. There's nothing Inoichi and I can say that you won't have already seen or heard. We're like family here – a little bit incestuous due to the fact that you, for a time, believed you had sex with me. But that's okay. It's my life's purpose to look out for the bunch of idiots that are the male specie."

Sitting here now, trying not to stare at her exposed cleavage and graceful movement, I wondered how any of us survived working with her these past five months. Sure her work was more proficient than we expected, and at times we couldn't accomplish our individual missions due to difficulties with having to avoid raising suspicion, she filled the gap for us and made things possible. But every single time we owed her, she never failed to slap us in the face with her supposed 'wisdom' and importance to our group. Even Lady Tsunade, who, due to the circumstances surrounding the rest of the team's members, had to entrust her with more secret missions than any of us could only stay quiet during Sanae's monologues.

Inoichi rubbed the wrinkles on his forehead and gave me a wan smile, as though to reassure me I was not alone in my agony.

"I'll try to talk Ino into coming home," I said. "Sorry I haven't done so already. Been busy."

He patted my back. "Don't worry about it. Kiba's dropped by and we had a talk."

"If she were my daughter, I'd shave her eyebrows." Sanae slung her arm on the backrest and fanned herself with her hand. "And if I were the Hokage's sister, I'd have knocked her unconscious and carried her here myself if that's the only way she'll be on time. For crying out loud, I need my beauty rest if she expects me to continue seducing men for her missions."

I drew a circle on my cheek. "Is that how you got that?"

"This is self-inflicted." She motioned to it the way someone would present a masterpiece. "I was spying on a farmer who owned lands near the border of the Fire Country. He lost his wife to an animal attack a month ago and yesterday I stumbled into his territory as this helpless damsel with cuts and bruises from attempting to escape into safety. The poor farmer didn't even ask what I was running from – a fictional husband who likes to beat me up after making love to me just so you know – and took me under his wing immediately. So stupid. But then again, that's human nature. He thinks he can redress his failure to protect his wife by protecting me."

"You're monitoring the border?" I asked.

"In a disguise, yes, just in case the enemy is already doing the same thing. There were a series of strange deaths initially presumed to be animal attacks. The local farmers caught a black bear and killed it. The deaths stopped afterwards. They've already buried the women before any report of it could reach the village."

I clicked my tongue in disapproval. "Shikaku already addressed that matter. We'll do missions for them for free. More people could have died because of their stubbornness."

Inoichi laid his hand down on the table to get my attention. "We also have to respect their decision, Shikamaru, hard as that may be. They own that portion of the land and they pride themselves in protecting their own with their lives. Just because they're not a shinobi doesn't mean they can't do noble things."

I turned to Sanae. "You investigated because you think the same as I do, don't you?"

"I agree with Inoichi but there are cases wherein they do have to call for our help," said Sanae. "This is one of them. I've only heard gossips but they all say the women were mutilated. Particularly their faces. I haven't been a bear before that I should know which body part they like to chew on but something about it seemed fishy."

The doors opened. We stood as Lady Tsunade stomped past the table and to the cabinet where she kept her sake. After taking a quick sip, she scanned the faces in the room and said, "It's too quiet."

"I agree," said Inoichi as he resumed his seat. "Even Shikaku who thinks a solution is long overdue is on guard for surprises. I can only imagine what Orochimaru would've already done if he discovered we have the answer."

"Or how far he'll go if he discovers only _I_ know how Shikamaru beat his fucked-up rebirth jutsu." She flailed her arm in my direction. "Of course, unless he manages to make you solve it again."

Sanae grabbed the bottle of sake and poured herself a drink, earning her a glare from Lady Tsunade. "I'm anticipating that. Five months of monitoring the village and nothing. Now an even more extensive search for traitors and spies and still nothing. It's either the enemy is stupid or there's already somebody on the inside we're too dumb to uncover."

"That's why you didn't hesitate to agree with Shikaku when he suggested I marry a clan guard," I said. "You knew that would require him to put more sentries around the house."

"What?" Sanae's stoic façade fell. "What's the meaning of this?"

Lady Tsunade's gaze transferred from Sanae to me, and I felt like a kid being urged to come clean with a crime. What a fucking drag. "Sakura and I split before the jounin exams. She doesn't know about my having a fiancé yet."

Inoichi turned to look at me but said nothing. I lowered my gaze to the table, cleared my throat, and said, "She wants me to focus on my family. I can't say she doesn't have a point but…you don't have to worry. We both understand that the mission goes first before anything else."

"That's true, but I'd rather you stick together," Sanae said. "Believe it or not, your partnership does this case more good than potential harm. The risks are the same whether or not you're all lovey-dovey. It will be easier for young people like you to find something to fight for this way."

Lady Tsunade sat at the head of the table, her expression firm. "It's not just them, Sanae. There may arise a situation wherein they can't choose to save each other. I think Sakura has come around that fact."

"I appreciate my superiors getting worked up with my love life but I'd take whatever privacy Sakura and I can get," I said. "I don't expect the status of our relationship to change soon anyway. What's important is we're focused on phase two."

"Did you hear that Sanae?" Lady Tsunade raised her eyebrows at the said woman. "Don't get involved."

"I hope you realize what a sick generation of shinobis you've raised, Tsunade."

Lady Tsunade clashed gazes with her but did not respond. She opened the folder Inoichi slipped in front of her and nodded as she read. "Let's allow them to continue in this path so they don't suspect anything. Shikaku's certainly on the lookout for traitors as well and he won't let anything even slightly questionable slip. Everybody should be extra careful from now on. Especially you, Sanae. He has someone watching you."

"That someone thinks we've slept together," she said. "Nothing to worry about."

Lady Tsunade tented her fingers and shifted on her chair to see me better. "Neji approached me earlier with a request to have Ino work her way into becoming your confidant. He thinks it will be easier to know whether or not you're sensing the enemy around you."

"I don't want Ino dragged into this," I said.

"She'll do as she's told," Lady Tsunade said. "It would be unlike me not to permit that strategy so I gave them the green light. Give her a vague response and lean more on the negative."

"…Yes, ma'am."

Sake at hand, she rounded the table and announced that the meeting was adjourned. "Sakura will be joining the scouting tonight. Sanae, you guard them before you return to your toy farmer."

The protest was already in my throat when she exited the room. There was no sense to Sakura and me scouting together unless the Hokage doubted my ability to sense the enemy. Great. Absolutely great. One more responsibility people expected me to flunk. Before parting ways with Inoichi, I joked that he should help me ensure my memories stayed healthy. They were, after all, the only useful part of me. He put his hand on my nape the same way Shikaku would and assured me I was worth more than any memory of the rebirth or physical prowess I could muster.

The discomfort that came with his sympathy made me hurry to the armory to change into an ANBU outfit. My palms sweat more than usual at the notion of having to see Sakura so soon after our conversation in the hospital. If only she shared Inoichi's perspective.

I was seated on the bench and strapping the gear around my shin when I heard Sanae scold her for being late. Sakura's voice from behind the door was a bit muffled, but I could make out what she was saying about needing to visit Naruto to check for injuries.

She marched into the armory smelling of food. I'd have greeted her had she not hurried to the bench behind me and stripped out of her leather dress and into her ANBU outfit. I picked up the dress as she was pulling down the sleeveless shirt over her stomach.

Sakura snatched it and chucked it into her locker. "Ino. You know I wouldn't have gone out in that thing unless she forced me to."

I could imagine the number of men who stared as long as they could at her bare back and legs during her night out with the gang. "Why do you let her force you then?"

"That pig's my best friend," she said. "And I would've competed with her for the men's attention if I weren't with you. It's just an act. I'm not interested in anybody admiring my body but you." Her shoulders stiffened. She shook her head. "B-but you know, that was when we were still together. Not to say I was actually parading myself tonight. That's not something I'd do whether or not you're my boyfriend. Of course, I also did not do that because you're my boyfriend. _Were,_ damn it!"

"Sakura, calm down."

"What I mean to say is that I'm not a slut and being with you strengthened my no-slut-here attitude because you never made me feel as though I had to flaunt something to be loved the way a respectable woman deserves to be loved."

"I get it. It's okay."

"Please don't scrutinize my crappy use of tense. I can't believe being single can take getting used to."

We shied from each other's gaze and remained silent, neither of us moving. In an underground hideout like this, the metal walls could get claustrophobic to the point that I could almost hear my thoughts bouncing back to my brain.

Sakura raised her head and apologized. "For being awkward and for what I said in the hospital earlier. You didn't deserve that."

I traced her hairline with my forefinger, moving the stray strands away from her large forehead. I lingered as long as I could and, upon reaching her ear, tucked the hair behind it and leaned in to kiss her lips. Before this moment, I believed I missed her and the taste of her to the extent of physical pain, but the kiss we shared now proved how wrong I was in trying to measure something no scale or pain could define.

Sakura hooked her arm around my neck, pulling me to her height, and clutched my shirt with her free hand. I wrapped her in an embrace and, for the first time in a long while, felt strong enough to keep her safe. Here. In this moment. As our kiss slowed and went deeper. I was strong enough for the two of us.

I pressed my forehead against hers. With my lips on her cheek I said I didn't want her to get used to us being apart.

Sakura uncurled herself from me and dropped to the bench. "It's not as though I don't want this, Shikamaru. But I've taken you away from your family once and I've seen how badly it hurt Shikaku." Reaching for the hem of my shirt, she held it with two fingers as though I was a thing too fragile to grip. "I can't love you and not love every part of you. That includes them."

I should tell her about the clan guard. Perhaps that would wake her up to the reality of my situation. The last thing I needed was space from my major source of strength.

I sat next to her and hunched low with my elbows on my knees. Telling her, though, would be no different from forcing her to fight for me out of fear of regret. No matter how hard I tried to deny it, there persisted the possibility that she did not love me the same anymore, hence the decision to separate. If that were the case, frightening her into being with me would be the same as tricking her into a future she didn't want.

I held hands with her. "Sakura, I'm not challenging your decision simply because I want us to be together. I'm willing to find a means out of my family trouble with you by my side but only if you want that. Only if you're willing to fight with me. I won't force you otherwise."

The seconds stretched in her silence. The moment the muscles of her hand twitched and she let go to lower the ANBU mask on her face, I realized dad must've felt this way when he honored Aiko's wish to break their engagement. What a shitty feeling.

 **Ino:**

Morning light seeped through the blinds and touched my toes. I stared at the stripes of light across my flesh, producing in me a newfound irritation. The morning was here again. Why couldn't the sky have remained dark for a little bit longer?

The late hours of yesterday evening had been too eventful that my mind and body were drenched in exhaustion like I had never had to deal with before. The old rebirth case team convened and suddenly, I was being assigned a crucial task in the plot. If only I wasn't so mad at daddy, I would have thought twice about agreeing to Lady Tsuande. He did not want me involved. It was too dangerous.

The front door of the apartment opened and closed. I hear Kiba shuffled outside the bedroom, probably trying to get Akamaru to stay in the living room, and pushed the bedroom door inwards. He found me in the middle of the bed, cuddled inside his blanket, hair sprawled over the pillows.

I smiled.

He smiled at first and frowned the next. "Get up," he said in the best imitation of his mother that he could muster. "You've got to go home now, Ino. Your father must be worried sick for you."

"He won't be," I mumbled and closed my eyes. "He's got his girlfriend now and they can have the place to themselves. I don't care."

"It's not like he's sneaking behind your back." The edge of the bed depressed as he sat.

"I don't like that woman."

"But your father likes her."

I jerked upwards to sit. I scowled at him. "Who's side are you on?"

"Yours, of course." He glanced out the partly open door – at Akamaru – as though the dog had the answer to my problems. He scratched his head. "It's just that...Ino, don't you think your father deserves another chance at love? He's getting old and it would be kind of lonely to be alone in his deathbed. Might as well drag someone pretty along with him on his trip to the other side, right? Not that he's going to die soon or anything but all of us will eventually get there...you get what I mean?"

I didn't bother to pull up the straps of my nightgown as I descended on my elbows and stretched my legs beside his arm. "He has me. Mom knows I've done everything I could for him. He and I are enough in that house. We were doing well until-"

"Ino." He leaned forward and transferred his arm beside my waist to sustain his pose. "We're jounins now – going to be jounins in a couple of days. You already rent your own apartment and trespass mine half the time. You barely visit your house. You pay somebody else to run the flower shop. Your dad is lonely. I know you're freaked out that I suddenly sound like a wise old man but the truth is that we all grow up and if I want to be the man who stays by your side, I have to bear the responsibility of earning you father's favour. Allowing you to sleep in my apartment and abandon your family home will not make him fond of me. My sister told me that and I'm pretty sure she's right."

I stared into his eyes and I marvelled at the changes he'd adopted since we officially became a couple. It was no longer just stealing kisses and sneaking to the park at midnight and going to dinner every opportunity we could. Somewhere along our relationship, he began to look at me differently and treat me differently.

Kiba cared.

I kicked the blanket aside and rolled out of the bed. Akamaru barked at us. Kiba motioned to the upper portion of his closet and told me it was where he stored the clothes I left behind. I undressed as I entered the bathroom.

"What's your plan for today?" he shouted from the bedroom.

I grabbed his towel behind the bathroom door and thought twice if I should be honest. It wouldn't do any harm, I decided, because only Sakura and Choji knew about my failed romance with Shikamaru. "I'm visiting Shikamaru in a couple of hours," I said."Check on him. See if he's sane."

"Are the rumours true?"

My chest clenched. "What rumours?"

"Clan thing or whatever that is. Being replaced as heir?"

"I think so." I allowed myself to breathe out slowly.

"Then you shouldn't be bullying Sakura."

I gripped the shower curtain and would not move it. His statement sank in. I marched out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around my body, my hair sticking out in all directions and failing to warm my bare shoulder the way they used to.

Kiba blinked at me from the bedroom, feigning innocence.

"What does that mean, huh?"

He shrugged. "You said you asked her to check on Shikamaru for your sake and Choji's and she did exactly that – probe his medical condition and whatever. Last night she reported to you that Shikamaru's evasive on the topic about his clan feud – "

"How did I bully her?"

Kiba glanced around the room and saw my discarded leather dress at the floor. He pointed at it. "You bought matching dresses, knowing you'll look better in it than she will."

I opened and closed my mouth, my mind awfully useless in a state of panic. I put my hand on my forehead and I was reminded of Sakura's huge one. "I meant it as a joke, you know."

He stood in front of me and flattened his palm on either side of my face. "You're frustrated with your dad. I understand that. Just don't vent it out on Sakura. Turn me into your punching bag. The last time you and her gave each other the cold shoulder for one week, you barely kissed me. I can't go through that again, okay? You tell her more than you tell anybody else...even me."

I laced my arms around his neck. The heat of his flesh enticed me to step closer. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous? _Me?_ " He snorted. "I'm the best shinobi in the Hidden-Leaf! I don't get jealous of anyone – especially your best friend! What kind of question is that?"

The tips of my ears burned with annoyance. I rolled my eyes and glide back into the bathroom. "Sometimes, Kiba, you can be so dense it sucks the appeal out of you."

"What? Hey, come back here and explain!"

Akamaru barked, supporting his master.

I pushed aside the shower curtain, dropped the towel, twisted the faucet, and let myself be submerged in hot water. "I love you, Kiba!" I said above the noise of the water hitting the tiles.

He poked his head inside the bathroom and shouted that he loved me, too.

The echoes that his voice made, however, were too weak to deafen me to the whispers of my guilt. Sakura had made no mention of my harshening treatment of her, but people were beginning to see the difference between our friendly competitions and my subtle attempts of belittling her. The wickedness of my actions bore holes in my heart and, for sure, in our friendship.

It was unfair to Sakura, wasn't it? She remembered nothing of the rebirth case and nothing of her affair with Shikamaru. Neither of them remembered that they had left me behind and moved on. They had rejected me, and all I wanted was to prove them wrong now that I had the chance.

But I would be wrong to pursue vengeance; regardless of how restrained I'd be with it.

Shikamaru needed me to be his teammate and confidante while Sakura...she needed me to pretend that I felt no aches after she stole my first love. Right. After all, I had loved Shikamaru enough to give him what he wanted.


	5. Chapter 5

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Sagana**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

 **Shikamaru:**

I re-fastened the ankle weights, stood, and jumped three times to test my litheness. The wooden floor thudded with my weight. Satisfied, I slipped on my sandals and grabbed the three rolls of bandages on my desk. I tried to ignore the cigarette in the middle of my bed.

In truth, I tried to ignore Asuma.

Regaining my stamina required me to master tactics and maneuvers that Asuma had so patiently taught me as an awkward teenager. While he could put up a fight with Kakashi, he wasn't nearly as strict. He'd pause long enough to allow me to steady my breaths; Kakashi would wait until I was dull before he'd stand back to give me the chance to feel my lungs. Asuma would force me to vocalize my observations and inquiries; Kakashi would expect immediate application of his lessons on the following round.

It wasn't that I couldn't keep pace with the use of my mind and body at the same time; my problem lay mainly in my lack of confidence with my physique. Could my arms and hands deliver the actions that my mind had envisioned? Could my feet lead me to my supposed destination fast enough? These were questions that, for now, fell to the negative more often than I dared wish they would.

This training session would be different. I would move beyond Kakashi's syllabus and prepare for our sparring tomorrow.

What a drag.

I climbed down the stairs and jogged to the kitchen to fill my canteen with cold water. As I passed the drawing room and rounded the curve that led to the west wing of our house, I heard a melody drift in the atmosphere. The hoarse voice became clearer the deeper I dwelt in the corridors. My thoughts filled with dad's face – an aged and sharp collection of muscles and flesh plastered on bones which became the very model for my own features.

I could remember the two of us strolling in our forest, racing each other to the first deer that came into view. I had tripped often, and he'd distracted my from crying by singing an ancient family hymn. He'd spit on the red herb – it would always be that spiky red herb he'd use on me – and layer it over the bleeding wound on my leg.

Peering inside the library, I saw dad sitting on the green cushion while carving the Nara family insignia on Yutsuki's box. Yutsuki, on the other hand, was waddling across the room, chasing the fly's shadow instead of the fly itself.

Mum said I was three years old when I first bothered to chase shadows. Now I could see why dad believed Yutsuki to be more gifted in shadow manipulation than I ever would be.

Dad hushed his singing, stealing my attention once more. He unfolded his left leg from beneath him and tapped the tattoo around his ankle. Yutsuki stumbled on the floor, thinking she could stop the shadow by sitting on it, and bobbed her little head behind her to see him.

She pointed at the door, directly at me. "Shikaaaa!"

Dad put down the box and the carving materials. "Enter, Shikamaru."

I pushed aside the sliding door and slipped in. Yutsuki crawled to dad and wrapped her fingers around his tattooed ankle, giggling. I poked her cheek. "She's getting used to the tattoo."

"So quick, this girl." Shikaku swathed the chisels and knives with a leather cloth and transferred it beside him, away from Yutsuki's reach. "I always thought that I'd be imprinting that tattoo on my little boy. But what was the use? You barely rolled on your crib."

"You think that will keep her from getting into trouble?"

"One of the many reasons I tattooed her to me."

"Oh. Right." I hefted Yutsuki from the floor and sat her on my lap. "She's more sensitive to shadows than I'll ever be. Might as well make her the heir."

"If that's possible, I would have proposed it already."

"I'd have agreed without hesitation."

Dad raised his gaze to me to contemplate my expression. I snickered and said, "I'm kidding. I want this position. Don't mind what I say. Body and mind coordination won't be my forte for at least a year."

"She feels my presence."

"She?"

"Your little sister."

I blew into her right ear. She giggled and elbowed my chest. "You mean to say that the tattoo works two-ways for you?" I said.

He grazed his forefinger over her ankle, on the black ink sprawled below a layer of baby fat. "I play tag with her. She finds me every time. It doesn't matter where we play tag. She finds me. For a child to understand and accept chakra at such a young age is...not unheard of because I was just as excellent. Ha!"

"Seriously, dad," I said. "Aren't you putting too much pressure on her? She's gifted but it doesn't mean you can steal her childhood from her."

"I'm not."

"You tattooed her."

"It was so I could track her down when she wanders in the house unaccompanied."

"You never thought she'd respond to your chakra?"

"To be specific, she responds to my shadow."

Yutsuki embraced my arm and hid her face on my sleeve. I tapped her back lightly. "Okay..."

"I still can't predict the scope of her potential." He upturned the box. The sunlight behind him filled the depth of the engravings on the wood. "Your mother will be tracking her progress. Allowing Yutsuki to continue discovering shadows on her own will be dangerous. Michio exhibited similar as a child. I can't begin to imagine what jutsu hit him to switch on his sanity."

"Yutsuki won't go mad. She simply needs guidance."

"Guidance – yes. She'll help your mother track me in the right pub if I don't get her allegiance first."

"It's your fault you tattooed her."

"Well."

I sighed, and as my body relaxed, so did Yutsuki's. She yawned and opened one eye to check on me. I shook my head at dad. "Speaking of shadows and jutsus, I have something to tell you. "

"If you're going to throw away your inheritance – "

"I'll marry her if that's what it takes."

"Here we go..." Shikaku stopped and raised his head to look at me, only now registering what I'd said. " _What?_ "

"You can tell the Hokage she can relax now. I'll go as far as marry the guard if that will secure my inheritance for good," I said. "Once I sign the agreement, she can expedite it and summon her here ASAP, right?"

He clutched his knee and inched himself upwards until he was standing on both feet. With a twist to the left and the right to flex his joints, he strode to the table and picked up his pipe. He struck a match against the wood and focused the flame on the pipe's mouth. "What happened?"

I closed my eyes. There was blackness in the confines of my skull and all memories of Sakura. "Probably hit my head during my last training."

"Train more," Shikaku said, blowing smoke rings towards the open window. "I'll have someone deliver the news to the Hokage, Inoichi, and Chouza. We've got a lot of work to do, son."

Transferring Yutsuki to the nearest cushion, I straightened my clothes and excused myself.

Today was supposed to be the day Ino visited me to accomplish the task the Hokage gave her. While passing by the main hall wondering how she'd go about getting answers from me, I saw fresh daffodils on mum's favourite vase.

Strange. She must've dropped by already but not with the intention to speak to me. It made me curious as to what her plan could be.

 **Sakura:**

"I don't understand," I said. The Hokage's office was swirling with a grey fog that tempted me to collapse. My legs trembled. The ground swayed beneath me. I felt weightless – so faint that I could not feel the blood flowing in my veins like I normally could.

This morning had started out like every other morning Naruto was in the village – a sing-song greeting from the other side of my front door followed by a request. I had tossed my pillow at his face the second I saw him. Who in the world had so much energy in the morning anyway? As he picked up the pillow laughing, he noticed a mail pinned to my door and joked that it was probably a notice from my landlord. I was finally getting kicked out of my apartment for breaking too many things in the building.

Sure, it would've been inconvenient had Naruto been right. As I unfolded the letter and read the content, though, I became thankful he'd been there to stop me from punching a hole through all twelve floors of the building. There was no doubt I'd get kicked out then.

Lady Tsunade flicked aside the blue paper and envelope sent to me by the officials of this year's jounin exams. They joined the heap of documents on the farther right side of her desk. Still, her face revealed no trace of worry. "They sent me a similar report yesterday evening." She yawned. "I reviewed the charges they're filing against you – well, Shizune did and she shared her insight with me this morning – and I dare say they're rather...interesting."

"Interesting?" I shouted.

Naruto gripped my left arm to keep me a safe distance from the Fifth. "Sakura, c'mon, I'm sure this is all a big misunderstanding! Suna must have gotten you mixed up with another chic – er, girl – who joined the exams! Right! Aint that possible, grandma?"

Ino transferred some of the reports on the Hokage's table to the shelf at the other end of the room. "It's a mix-up, Sakura. Stop acting like you've been demoted to genin."

"That's not possible." Lady Tsunade rubbed her eyes and leaned back on her chair. It squeaked twice. "Sakura – "

"After everything I've done-!" I stopped and lowered my head. My hair fell over my large forehead, but with its current length it could not to shield my eyes from their scrutiny. My eyes and their tears. This wasn't sadness, I knew. This was exhaustion. "...All I wanted was to become a jounin. What are these charges for? Are they going to hide behind the excuse of 'precaution' because they know I'm capable of cheating the medical examination and abuse my body with just any performance enhancing drug? That I'm so proud of my achievements that I'll belittle the honour of the qualifying tests by taking a short-cut to my promotion? Is that it?"

"Sakura…" Naruto's grip loosened. He looked at the Fifth, expecting an answer on his behalf.

Shizune took the blue paper and inserted it inside the envelope. "Neji, you and Kurenai will be receiving a copy of the same letter since you were the examinees' guardians. Both of you are involved in this."

Neji stepped forward and asked for the envelope. I peered at him from the corner of my eye. He unfolded the letter and glanced at its contents once. "It seems I'll be the one to file a demand letter to Suna for them to surrender the writings on their evidence against Sakura."

"You signed the result of her medical examination?" asked Lady Tsunade.

"I was the one available at that time." He smoothed the envelope and turned to face me. "I'll update you once I have their response. Stop sulking. This will be fixed."

"Hear that? Neji will help you." Naruto faked a cough and whispered, "If his help will really help."

"I heard you, Naruto."

"Hehe, kidding, Neji!"

"See!" Ino slapped my back. "It'll be alright. Now get your act together and let's start hospital duty. We've got work waiting for us, Forehead."

"How soon?" I asked the Fifth. My heart pounded my chest. My throat pulsated with its rhythm.

She squinted to study the ceiling, as though she had an invisible calendar of the future pinned there. "You'd be lucky if you make it to the proclamation ceremony. Neji's right, though – this will be fixed. We all know you didn't use any performance enhancing drug. You didn't, did you?"

My mind went blank. Whether she meant it as a joke or a solid query, the implication behind her question triggered an explosion in my head that darkened whatever silver lining I had remaining in my thoughts. Of course. Why hadn't I seen this sooner? She'd plotted this to keep me from going on any mission outside the village. She might even go as far as attest it's the truth if a suspension would prove more efficient.

I felt my limbs go numb in anger.

Word of this would get out, I thought as I left the tower with Ino and went to the nurse's station in the main hall of the hospital. Eiko and Nanami shuffled out of my radius the second they heard the snap of my footfalls. Isas swung the swivel chair towards me and threw a crumpled piece of paper to my head. "Bad day, Sakura?" he laughed.

"Horrible." I opened and closed the file drawers, pretending to search for something when all that my mind could process were the words in that stupid letter from Suna. Isas offered to help me search but I dismissed him with a wave of my hand.

I pulled open a drawer. It fell off. I leapt away in time to evade it. This rusty, metal box hit the floor with a clangour so loud that all heads in the main hall stopped to glance at the nurse's station. Folder after folder mounted before my feet. Paper clips slid off the documents. Patients' pictures floated off their respective medical charts.

Isas whistled. "You really meant it when you said you're having a horrible day."

A hand slammed on the table, making him jump.

"You're the least helpful person, Isas." Ino rounded the circular desk of the station and shook her head at the mess I'd created.

I stared at the gap between my toes and the nearest document. No man's land. Me and work and the non-existent line that separated me from my duties. The stress continued to build inside me. "Get off my case, Ino."

She kicked one of the folders. "Sulking won't help. It only makes you look guilty."

"I can't help it."

"Yes, you can," she said, low enough not to be overheard by the waiting line in the registrars and the cashiers. "You didn't use whatever drug they think you used. We'll prove it and you'll be promoted the same day the rest of us do, okay?"

"Ino..."

"Isas, quit idling in your chair and fix this!" She pointed at the mess. "No wonder your girlfriend left you! You're gaining too much weight because of your laziness!"

Isas sobbed. He opened his mouth to reply but was stopped, his attention now drawn to the hospital entrance. I craned my neck to see. The hairs on my nape rose, coursing my body with a shiver that I only experienced in the battlefield.

Why had my body tensed?

Neji slipped past the double doors and walked in our direction. He stopped a few feet behind me and glimpsed Ino and Isas first. "May I excuse Sakura?" he said.

Ino folded her arms across her chest. She cocked her eyebrow at me. "Sure. Take her away from here. She needs the distraction."

"Thank you." He turned to leave. "Let's go, Sakura."

I slapped Ino's arm before jogging to catch up with him. Once out of the hospital, I lifted my hand over my eyes to block the sun. I inquired of his agenda for wanting to talk to me despite knowing it was about the charges Suna was filing. I simply needed to hear it from his mouth – test whether the way he'd answer me would reveal whether he believed the Sand's lies.

It was not until we reached the hospital gates that he replied.

"Take a break," he said, lifting his own hand to shield his eyes from sunlight. "I can't work with you in counteracting Suna's charges unless you're calm and useful."

" _Excuse me_?"

Neji scratched his neck. "Well rested and insightful is what I meant."

The goose-bumps on my arms would not fade. I rubbed them to warm myself. "I'm sorry," I said. "The news just...it was just so unexpected that I didn't know how to properly react to it. I'm tired from hospital duty and the exhaustion from the exams is just beginning to wear off and it would have been nice to – I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. I'll take a break and we'll discuss this further once we have a response from Suna regarding the evidences they have against me – whatever those are."

"This is not your fault, Sakura."

I wrinkled my nose to stop the tears.

His lips parted and he gaped at me. I pressed my thumb and forefinger on the inner corners of my eyes to suppress the sting. He reached his hand out, a handkerchief on his palm. I shook my head and mumbled a 'no, thank you' but this only forced him to press the folded, white cloth against my cheek. His fingertips touched my skin, stealing the heat of anger from me. "Crying doesn't suit you."

I took the handkerchief by the edge and wiped my other eye with it. I sniffed. "This will be returned good as new, I promise."

"I don't mind," he said. "You might need it."

I scanned the hospital grounds for onlookers. The old men and women in their recovery rooms stood in front of their window, spying on me. Mr. Ueda waved. I motioned for him to return to his bed and I turned my back on the hospital. "I didn't use performance enhancing drugs, Neji. I swear."

"I'm certain."

"...You are?"

"You don't need to use them. You're brutally strong by nature."

"Thanks, I guess."

He tilted his head to the right and scratched his neck again. "Go back to your place and rest. Promise me you'll rest, Sakura. You are lacking of it so much that even I am beginning to worry for your health."

"Sure." I couldn't help but glimpse the area he was scratching. Beneath his nails was a tender spot of pink flesh where a scar had recently vanished. It must be irritating because he kept it covered for a long time. I nodded and attempted my best smile. "Promise. Thanks."

I returned to my apartment. The murk in this place suffocated me. In my head there was a chanting: not good enough. Alone. I felt the word 'rejection' rising on my forehead, the curve of every letter forming wide for the world to see.

Taking the biggest pillow on my bed, I embraced it with all my might and imagined it was Shikamaru. With enough concentration, I should soon hear his voice in my head saying I was squeezing so hard he couldn't breathe.

 **Shikaku:**

Glad as I was that Shikamaru had agreed to marry, I couldn't fathom what exactly happened that made him change his mind. He'd become more compliant since Inoichi erased his memories, even only a little angry when Yoshino and I decided to tell him about Aiko and the baby.

We'd decided to avoid another dramatic exposure of our secrets by coming clean as soon as possible. While he'd made faces during my sloppy narration, he didn't raise questions or begrudge me and his mother. He did, however, act strange whenever Neji was in the house. Perhaps it was still a bit of a shock that he could've shared a relative with a Hyuuga.

I skimmed through Sakura's report on his physical assessment. Her handwriting ebbed with confidence in her knowledge of what was going on in my son's pathways. The curves of her letters showed hints of affection for the patient, though, and when I brought this up with the Hokage, she'd nearly tossed a book at me and said I was overthinking things. Besides, Sakura was the type to care too much for all of her patients. It wouldn't be unusual for her to be a little more attentive to Shikamaru given they attended the academy together.

Reclining on my chair, I sighed and surrendered to the notion that perhaps I was overthinking everything.

Daisuke slipped past the busy bodies in my office with a stern expression that told me he had something interesting to report. I opened my mouth to call him over when Mimiko dropped a tower of files right in front of me. "Sir!"

I cringed at her pitch. "What?"

"How many times do I have to tell you to sign at the side, not at the bottom?" She waved a piece of paper at my face. "The feudal lord gave specific instructions about not putting any signature at the bottom."

Daisuke put his hand on her shoulder. "Yelling at the boss again?"

"For someone so clever, you have trouble following the simplest of instructions, sir." She carried the tower of files again and tilted her head sideways to see me. "I'll have these reproduced and corrected to save us time. What will you be having for lunch?"

"I'm not hungry, Mimiko."

"You have to eat! The last time we met with the feudal lord's men, they said you looked like you were being overworked by the Hokage," she said. "What do you think will – "

"Ramen," Daisuke and I answered in unison. He made a motion for her to go and, with a frown at me, she relented and left the office.

I sank on my chair the second she was gone. "I wouldn't put any woman in my team if only they weren't so useful."

He laughed. "Fun at the bar, monsters in the office. Good luck to Shikamaru, by the way. Word's spreading. He's becoming popular. I'm assuming it's official, then?"

"Yes, he swore to cooperate."

"That's to our advantage," he said as he turned to face the window to my right. "Sanae seems to have found a lead. She's been outside of Konoha, pretending to be this frail woman who needs the protection of one of the farmers there. She's back in the building, though. It's safe to assume she's gotten what she went there for."

 _Sanae,_ I thought. Again.

I hated confronting this woman. The more ground we covered in this case, the more smug she became about her contributions. I had to constantly tail her to make sure she wasn't taking liberties that would later cost us.

Daisuke advised against any contact with Sanae, aware through Inoichi that the chances of aggression between us were high. Why not let him handle the matter? We could discover her motives without revealing to Sanae that she'd been found out.

Nonesense. Sanae already knew I was having her followed. She was just waiting for me to ask nicely.

I took deep breaths and rolled my shoulder back as I neared her office. Attacking her like I did before wouldn't be right, regardless of how satisfying such violence would be.

I turned the knob but the door was locked. No footfalls, voices, or shuffling of objects reached me from the corridor. I checked the wall clock. Twelve noon. Her subordinates should be out for lunch but the office shouldn't be locked.

I stepped back, hunched my left shoulder, and shoved myself against the door to open it. Two things caught my attention: the gloom and the scent of smoke.

"Sanae." I felt the wall beside me for the light switch. The fluorescent light overhead flickered to life. As the gloom dispersed, I saw Sanae seated on the floor in a corner. A cupcake with a candle alit sat in front of her, the frosting melting in the heat of the fire.

She blew the candle. "Have you wished Aiko a happy birthday?"

Cupake. With lots of frosting. That had been her one request to me the first time we celebrated her birthday together. I thought she'd ask me for an expensive weapon or a rare jewellery. Had I known all an esteemed kunoichi of the Hyuuga clan wanted was to satisfy her sweet tooth on her birthday, I wouldn't have accepted an S-rank mission to save up for it.

"No," I said. "I've forgotten most things about her."

"That's to be expected. You're senile."

"People move on, Sanae. How long will you blame me for her death?"

"As long as I feel love for her." She smiled while shaking her head. "She was my only friend, Shikaku. We both did this to her."

"You were with the farmers," I said. "Why?"

Sanae carried the cupcake to her table. Strands of black amidst her blonde hair caught in the light. Her transformation to and fro a disguise used to be flawless. I suppose we were both growing old. "It was a worthless adventure. They were a bunch of ordinary people attempting to be something greater than they truly were. Turned out the women who got mutilated by the bear were just stupid enough to be where they shouldn't be. My only consolation for the wasted time was the farmer. He's a good kisser. Smelled of mud most of the time, though."

"Nothing more?"

"I'd tell you if there was something more," she said. "Shikamaru's the most interesting subject among all the other Nara I've met. It'd be a shame to hand him over to Orochimaru so simply. Besides, your young man's getting married! He can put to use what I've taught him. I'm sure his wife will enjoy it."

"Don't even try to ruin my son's engagement. I'm warning you."

She put her legs on the table and crossed them at the ankles. "Don't worry, I have no such extravagant plans. I'm too bummed that he's not ending up with Sakura to do anything that will inconvenience you."

"What did you say?"

"Oh, please. I'm sure you've considered it."

"Stop being vague, Sanae."

She smiled an innocent smile. "How differently do you think the past five months would've turned out if they didn't forget a single thing after all?"

I recalled the curves of Sakura's handwriting, of the tender indents of the pen on the paper. Shikamaru's unexplained happiness in most dinners since Sakura conducted his physical assessment. The foul mood he'd been on in the two weeks the jounin exams transpired in Suna, the switch from Sakura to Shizune in handling his assessment, and his sudden decision to marry if need be. I glimpsed Sanae before closing the door behind me, and I wondered then if something else was going on that I didn't know about.

 **Sakura:**

Shikamaru and I scouted together for the second time. Halfway through the northern districts, dark clouds rolled in and the outpour made it difficult to find our way around the village. We stood under an unfinished gazebo on the rooftop of hotel still under construction, making sure we stayed at a safe distance from one another as we watched the sky cry on us.

I asked him if he knew about the Hokage's plan to fail me in the jounin exams and he said no, he didn't. Such a simple response. I wanted him to assure me that he'd think of a better way to keep me from being sent on missions outside the village without sacrificing my promotion, but he didn't say anything more about the matter. Of course. What did I expect? He wasn't my boyfriend anymore.

"I think I've kept Ino from her task of visiting you."

"She dropped off flowers to my mum the other morning," he said. "I thought she retreated because she didn't even show herself to me. Apparently, Ino's changed her approach. She's been spying on me since she received the order from the Hokage, and now I'm waiting to see what she'll consider an opportune time to retrieve the information she needs."

"Good thinking of her."

"Until she approaches me, it's best if you give vague hints as well about sensing a presence. It's never too early to put a red herring on their path."

That tone. It was the same tone he used when breaking down a plan to his squad for a mission. "If you say so," I said.

I think it was an hour before it stopped and I said I could scout by myself from here onwards. It would be best for him to change and go home before he caught a cold. Instead of refusing or asking me if I was alright – the redundant question that always offered relief – he simply nodded and went the opposite direction.

At the hospital the next day I couldn't rid myself of the smell of the flowers he'd given me before. I'd let them dry and sealed them in a container which I put on my bedside table. Sometimes I wished last night could've turned out differently. That under the gazebo he'd have put his arm around me and said the team was only looking out for us. This mess would be over soon. After all, the Hokage was correct in every aspect of this. If she gave me my promotion, it would be suspicious of them not to allow me to go outside the village. Giving me a failing mark on the exam was not justifiable either, considering I did better than half of the other examinees. Performance enhancing drugs was a smart move, truly.

"Sakura."

I blinked up from the leg I was bandaging and saw Lady Tsunade standing on the opposite side of the bed, her arms folded beneath her breasts. The injured shinobi regarded her and stopped rambling about how he got his leg burned.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"We have to talk," she said. "Hurry up and finish. Meet me in the research lab."

I'd have been sarcastic if only her expression didn't hold the solemnity of a mother about to tell her daughter that her favourite cat drowned. Perhaps they'd decided to withhold my promotion altogether and she wanted to break it to me slowly this time.

I knotted the ends of the bandages and nodded at her. As she disappeared into the adjacent room of the ER, I glimpsed a familiar black hair bound in a ponytail. I held my breath as I turned and saw that while he looked a bit like Shikamaru, he was neither as willowy nor as ugly when he scowled. In fact I knew him from Shikamaru's stories, and I raced Ino to inspecting the torn flesh of his shoulder. The bandages, drenched in blood, were hardly visible.

"Makoto Nara, correct?" I tore his shirt to see the injury better.

He clutched the headboard of the bed and stifled a cry. "How'd you know?"

Think quick. Shikamaru told me once that this particular cousin was clever but reckless. Shikaku had to approve the missions he was in not only to prevent his death, but also to decrease the chances of there being casualties. "You're here often," I said. "And isn't Sir Shikaku monitoring you?"

Ino dropped a basin of water on the trolley. "He's here even though he doesn't go on missions. Seriously, Makoto, Uncle Shikaku will be furious when he finds out you ruined your shoulder."

Removing the last strand of bandage from his wound, I concentrated my chakra on stitching together his flesh. The wound was deep but clean. This guy was lucky. "How in the world did you get this anyway?"

He sat upright, grinning. "Does it matter? I finished my mission as soon as possible just to be here on time!"

"Hey, hey, don't go announcing it to the whole of Konoha yet!"

I took the cloth Ino was holding and cleaned the area around the wound. "Hold still, you! And what is it you two are keeping secret?"

Makoto leaned towards. He whispered, "I'm part of the bride's entourage!"

"Congratulations," I said. "A family member's getting married?"

Ino sat on the foot of the bed. "Not just any family member. It's Shikamaru. He's getting married."

The news took a while to sink in that, when my brain finally absorbed it, the chakra in my hand flowed in and out like a broken flashlight. I remembered Shikamaru taking the very same hand and saying he was willing to fight for us if only I'd fight by his side. That he'd find a means for us to be together in spite of his clan problem.

I wringed my wrist and said it was funny, it's like I just ran out of chakra. Ino moved forward to heal Makoto, complaining that I was letting him bleed out.

She scowled at me but said nothing. Perhaps she thought this reaction suspicious and would report this to the team. No doubt the Hokage would be at it again with me being careless and all.

"I should get this checked," I said with a wan smile. "Makoto, make sure to have interesting stories to tell about this bride the next time you land yourself here. I'm sure Shikamaru would be the last to spill the beans on this woman he's marrying."

I changed out of my uniform and let my feet lead me to Intelligence. Surely, there was an explanation to this. Shikamaru wasn't truly marrying a stranger to save his clan – this was just a strategy he came up with to tell Orochimaru I could no longer serve as hostage. He was protecting me. Never in this lifetime would he do something like this to me. Not after all we'd been through.

Both underlings and superiors acknowledged me as we passed by one another in the corridors. I schooled my expression to neutral – tired, if I couldn't help but look like it – in fear that everybody who saw me could hear the rising waves of panic slapping against the shores of my self-control.

My pace quickened, and soon enough I was running past the rehabilitation garden to the shortcut towards Intelligence. I gasped when a pair of hands took a hold of my arms, stopping me in my tracks. Inoichi and I stumbled in circles until he managed to steady the both of us into a halt. "Sakura," he said. "What's the matter?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By** **Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

 **Kakashi:**

I sat on the couch and stared at contents of Nohara's home. The Hokage had approved for her to disguise herself as a common villager working as a painter to suffice the feudal lord's fascination with the Hidden Leaf Village. She was here on research to provide more entertaining potrayals in her paintings, and Lady Tsunade did not hesitate on expending money for her to accomplish this disguise. Of course, it was important not to tip anybody off that she was living in Anko's former apartment.

Nohara tried to hide it, but I knew that in spite of this uncomfortable set-up being in a traitor's home, this was the life she'd always wanted. A place for herself, kimonos to wear during her day off, plants by the windowsill, and medical books atop every flat surface.

When time came for the Hokage to declare the rebirth case closed for good, she'd have all these taken away from her for good a second time. And I had no means to save her from that pain.

If I voiced these to her, however, she'd say I was being silly. She no longer desired these trivial things. What could compare to dedicating every aspect of her being to the safety of Konoha?

The key turned in the knob, and Nohara entered her apartment with the silence of an ANBU. She gave a gasp at the sight of me - the first indication that she was tired beyond what she had trained herself to endure. Ot perhaps she looked at me now with wide eyes because I had discarded my forehead protector and mask, the former replaced by a cotton eye patch. She'd suggested the cotton eye patch when she noticed the cloth of the forehead protector irritated my eyelid.

"Not used to someone waiting for you?" I asked. "I kept the light on."

Nohara dropped her bag on the kitchen counter and undid her obi. She walked to her bedroom while shrugging off her violet kimono, revealing her battle outfit underneath. I noted the bruises on her back the size of a man's hand. Hands bigger than mine. "Kakashi," she called out, "remember the mission we went to where this guy fell head over heels over you?"

"Everybody falls head over heels for me after seeing my face." I proceeded to unpack the food Kurenai prepared for her. Nohara rarely had appetite while on a mission. She'd be starving by now.

She retuned to the living room wearing a shirt and shorts. "It's the same guy in this mission."

I unpacked the last container of rice balls and motioned for her to turn around. I raised her shirt to study the bruises on her bare back. The guy she was referring to molested children and tortured women for sexual pleasure. His nature was not a facet of an enemy I had expected when he abducted me while on a mission with my chuunin squad, and Minato was still suffering from a serious injury when he came to my rescue. He killed everybody except for that man.

His estate sat within the political boundary of Iwagakure and we couldn't afford to validate the cause for war any further. Minato had taken me aside afterwards to tell me different kinds of people took advantage of others in different ways. Noting the shock I refused to express, he promised he would not let anybody steal my freedom or that of the villagers - and so he sealed the nine-tails in Naruto and died as our Hokage. I lowered her shirt. "Is he dead?"

"Castrated and beheaded."

We clapped hands as she walked past me to the kitchen. She filled a glass of water and stared at me while she drank. "You bothered to wait for me to make sure our master's properly avenged, huh? That scar he left Minato's back was ugly."

"I heard that monster is at it again and someone's been sent out to deal with it." This was a lie. I snuck into the sealed room where all mission orders were placed and confirmed she had been deployed to a 'highly classified mission with possibility of sexual exploitation from an unranked bandit possessing specialty jutsus'. They released an ANBU in case she died and someone found her body. With no record of her existence tracing her back to the village, nobody would be able to blame Konoha for any damage. "You do the team proud." I dropped to the floor with my back turned to her. I should've left my mask on.

Nohara sat beside me and munched on the rice balls. "I used to be so good in making these."

"I'm sure your skills are still unparalleled."

"You're complimenting me to get free food."

"It's that obvious?"

"You've always eaten off my lunchbox if you could. You and Obito."

The mention of Obito did it. He made me vow to protect Rin at all cost, but I couldn't even fight for her right to refuse such missions. The Hokage had ensured even the most skilled kunoichi could back out of assignments that threatened her sexually, and only the urgencies of war could override that right. Should the need to terminate an enemy posing such threats be urgent, she would be duly accompanied by shinobis of her rank or higher, and a strategy would be implemented to protect her to the most of the military's ability.

Nohara could've died in that mission and forgotten by everyone but me. She came alone, fought alone, and made it back alone. Repulsed by this thought, I touched a yellow bruise on her wrist as she reached for another rice ball. "That monster hurt you a lot, didn't he?" I asked.

She lowered the rice ball, her lips parting to reveal food she hadn't chewed. She blinked back tears and finished another glass of water to down the contents of her mouth. "Too much time out in society is making me soft. I didn't use to mind my body aching all over."

"Was this your first mission of that nature?"

Nohara tore apart her chopsticks and filled her plate with vegetables and grilled meat. "Of this degree, yes. But it's nothing I haven't seen or done before. Sometimes you just come across people who exceed all the evil you've come to know."

"Nothing you haven't seen or done before?" I leaned back on my hands. "This is a surprise. Did ANBU change you that much?"

"I can't be a kid forever."

"But you're not like that, Rin," I said. "Every person I know who's been sent out to a mission similar to the one you just completed suffered from some form of emotional trauma. ANBU or not, you're human. It's alright to feel your privacy's been - "

"Kakashi." She placed her chopsticks on her plate and shifted on the floor so she was facing me. "I understand the rebirth case has opened an opportunity for us to spend more time together, but this isn't as easy as it looks. It's not normal for me to find someone waiting at home with questions as to how I feel. You know what I mean. You were ANBU. You're giving me a taste of this life knowing that it will be over before I know it."

I reached for a slice of apple and nibbled on it. Nohara watched me finish one and take another. She resumed eating as well. "You're ignoring me until I forget about it."

"No, I'm just enjoying the food Kurenai prepared."

"I've been meaning to bring this up with you. Kakashi, please don't make this hard."

I sighed because really, I hated explaining what someone as smart as her should've noted by now. "Rin, you're the one making an issue out of nothing. Of course none of this normal life will remain, but whether you're ANBU or not, I'll still be waiting for you to come home every time." I shrugged. "I mean, we're the only two left of our team."

Nohara pushed her plate aside and marched to the bathroom. In minutes, the sound of the shower hitting the tiles drowned out all sounds in the apartment. She'd been itching to take a shower since she arrived but hadn't wanted to show me the effect the mission had on her.

Nohara returned with a towel wrapped around her head and a black shirt and shorts. "This was the most distasteful mission I've ever done."

"See? It's not so bad to tell the truth."

She went to the kitchen to boil water. Moments later, she returned with two cups of tea. "I sliced him open while he was distracted."

"You're spoiling our early dinner."

"It was the first time I called out your name in a mission since I became ANBU." She frowned at the food. "But you couldn't hear me because things have changed and I no longer have a team to depend on. So I was anxious when I saw you, because I didn't even ask for you to be here and you are."

I pretended not to see the tears on her lashes as I drank my tea. She seldom let her emotions show to this extent in spite of my probing, and I wasn't going to burden her further by telling her I'd been seeing Anko everywhere lately.

 **Sakura:**

Inoichi and I sat on a bench in the rehabilitation garden. Naoko's team had gone a great job maintaining the landscape in spite of the many patients who stepped on and rearranged the plants whether on purpose or not. I should specialize in landscaping. No jounin exams. No rebirth case. No awkward encounters with people I'd rather not talk to.

He crossed his legs and leaned his head on his hand. "I thought the split was your idea, Sakura."

"Yes," I said, louder than I intended to. "He needs to have some burden thrown off his shoulders and I was the most expendable. But he never told me it'll come to this. And who agrees to arranged marriages anyway?"

"What would you have done had you known?"

"I'd never have left him."

"Sakura, you can't just drop someone and expect you can pick him up when you want to," he said. "Whether you like it or not, you're partly responsible for his decision to proceed with the engagement."

"Would Shikaku have given him a choice?"

"Shikamaru wasn't given the choice to die for you when he entered the pond in the Third Training Ground," he said. "You and I know he'd have found a way regardless of the circumstances. If it's any consolation, your separation is to the team's advantage. The two of you would've blown our cover had he decided to fend off his engagement."

"Why am I always the last to know?" I asked. "Do you have any more surprises waiting for me? Because I thought I was an integral part of the team but as it turns out, I'm just another pawn played strategically to conceal our activities better."

Inoichi turned his head slightly so he could see me. "We needed a genuine reaction from you with regards to the jounin exams. The others would've been doubtful otherwise. As for Shikamaru, he didn't consent until after our last meeting. Shikaku may have decided on the engagement but Shikamaru's full consent changes the game. He will marry the girl in a month's time if it's the only means to save his inheritance." Standing, he put his hand on his waist and gazed at me with the same understanding he gazed Ino with. "You've made your choice. Please don't make it difficult of him to stand by his. I've watched him grow from a boy into a man. I've consoled Shikaku through all the difficulties he's had with Shikamaru, especially during the rebirth case. I felt his aches as though I were Shikamaru's father. They say it's a curse brought about by the bond the Nara, Yamanaka, and the Akimichi clans have that we feel their pain as though we were one blood."

"I've always wanted to know..." My heart beat slowly but strongly, pushing out into the open this question that had often been on the tip of my tongue. "Do you and Mr. Shikaku hold a grudge against me for what Shikamaru did to save me?"

Inoichi's scowl eased. He had not realized his implications, and now the guilt showed itself in the lines on his face. "Sakura, we don't hold you responsible for Shikamaru's actions. That's not what I meant."

"But you're always afraid that so long as he feels something for me, he'll do it again," I said. "I am afraid of that, too. I'm afraid that by some crazy instinct to protect me, he'll sacrifice everything else knowing that part of the village's security rests in mine. I know he's not that stupid and he'll probably work a balance between his priorities, but I don't want to compete with his family. With you and Mr. Shikaku."

"Do you wish to get back with him?"

"I wish I never let him go."

The wind swept the garden. It swept my confession to distances I couldn't follow, because I knew it was a move I couldn't retract.

Inoichi's long blond hair swayed behind him. He let our surroundings fall into stillness before speaking up. "I've never seen a clearer expression of love than that Shikamaru has shown you, but you have decided to surrender it as an expression of your love for him. I understand you want to keep him safe, hence your split. I don't see any path to undoing what you did without straining our plans, Sakura."

"It's my fault." Hearing the words out of my own mouth, said plainly like that, lifted a burden off my shoulders. Sometimes the most difficult part about pain was refusing to acknowledge that I inflicted it on myself. "I get it."

Before he turned to leave, he squeezed my shoulder and said, "If you're meant to be, this detour might find your paths crossing at the conclusion of the case."

I had all the time in the world to think alone in the garden that afternoon. Think about our arrival in his ancestral house during the start of the rebirth case, when he had to pretend to be my husband to save my life. The uncertainty of giving and receiving affection at such desperate times, and our frail attempt at standing firm by our decision to keep each other alive. He'd made so many sacrifices for me and all I had to repay him with was to give up and give way to better opportunities in his life. What if he didn't want those opportunities, though? What if he wanted me? And he wanted me so much he let me go upon confirming I couldn't want him as much.

I left the garden at sunset and brought dinner for me and Lady Tsunade. She frowned at me as I approached her in her office, asking where the hell was I when she asked for me. Sanae stood next to her, annoyed at having been disturbed midway another one of her monologues.

Dropping the take-outs on the desk, I took a seat and ate.

Lady Tsunade's temper subsided in the waves of my silence. She took her seat and addressed me again but in a calmer tone. "Was there trouble in the hospital?"

I shook my head. "I suppose once Shikamaru's fiancé arrives, he won't have time to scout the village."

She exchanged a glance with Sanae. "Yes. You'll have to scout on your own."

"The tight security around him might force Orochimaru to shift his focus to me," I said. "There's no sign of any activity from him yet, and if he's desperate then he knows I'll be the easier target."

"Now do you understand why we had to postpone your promotion?"

"Perfectly logical." I gave her the OK sign and leaned back on my chair. The tears stung behind my eyes, but I wouldn't let myself cry. Inoichi was correct. I had no else to blame but myself for where I was today.

My appetite lost, I bagged my food and said I'd finish it while looking over some documents. Sanae followed me out of the office in spite of Lady Tsunade's objections. I usually let Sanae drag on about her nonsense while I screamed curses in my head and kept a smile on my face, but today was different. I turned on my heels and nearly collided with her. "What do you want?"

She snatched my bag of food. "I'm sure you'll only be throwing this away so let me have it instead. It's my favorite." Trotting past me, she waved me over and ordered me to keep up.

I hurried to her side, my tightly curled fists keeping my temper in check, and asked her again where she was taking me. "Nothing in particular," she said. "I only want to talk."

My feet stopped moving. As though my mind had lost control over my body, I stopped midway crossing the bridge and let the railing support my weight. Perhaps this was the reason Lady Tsunade treated heartbreak seriously. I remembered the scar on Neji's wrist and the rumors of his stay in our rehabilitation center. Here I was again, facing the loss of Shikamaru and needing Neji. It would've been a great comfort if I could confide in him as I did before. Now, I had nothing and no one. All the help I could expect was from whatever strength remained in me.

Sanae's boots entered my field of vision. In a low voice, she said that for all her bossing around and criticisms, the last thing she wanted to happen was for me and Shikamaru to give up on one another.

The sincerity with which she delivered this confession baffled me enough that I found the courage to look up at her. "Excuse me?"

"You're so young." None of the proud Sanae I knew remained in her at that moment. It was as though she had shed her skin to reveal another layer to her being. A layer that, for once, felt as I felt. "It's so rare what you found and lost at your age."

"Please," I scoffed. "Your sympathy is the last thing I need, Miss Sanae."

"I'm not giving you my sympathy," she said. "I may feel for you but I haven't lost my mind yet. I wanted to talk to you because now is a good time to use this reality to our advantage."

I should punch her. She would probably dodge it and knock me out without breaking a sweat, but the notion of even trying to hit a commanding officer was so satisfying I had to hold my breath to keep myself still.

She brushed my hair with her fingers and tucked them behind my ears. "Beautiful Sakura," she cooed. "I've dealt with Shikaku for so many years and invested time and energy into studying him. I knew before he did that he already had hints that Shikamaru has affections for you. He might not realize it ASAP that you didn't lose your memories, but he doesn't have to know that for him to cause trouble. So what I did, being the clever woman I am, I planted in his brain the idea that you and Shikamaru might be together."

I gripped her arms, my mouth agape. There were no words for my shock.

Sanae laughed. "He trusts the Hokage too much to assume she has left him out of any important scheming. He won't realize the truth - not yet. Knowing him, he'll come to you with a plan to lure you into making a mistake that would confirm his suspicions. But now that you're aware of his plans, you can turn the tables on him and quell his doubts before they turn into a decent fire."

"What have you done?" I buried my nails on her skin, tempted to rip her apart to get to the bottom of her agenda. I had so little control over myself, I was sure I could do it. "He'll catch me and it'll all be over!"

Sanae steadied me by placing both hands on either sides of my face. "Sakura, dear, you're a kunoichi. To win a war, we don't set aside our emotions. We use our heart to our advantage. That's how I catch Shikaku off guard all the time. And you, innocent little rabbit, will be the last person he will suspect to play him at this level. If he asks you about Shikamaru, use your heartbreak to convince him when you say 'no, sir, your son and me are nothing but colleagues'. That's the truth now, and he'll smell it on you."

I jolted awake in the middle of the night, sweaty and panting on my own bed. The nauseating scent of genjutsu that just passed disabled me from moving. That Sanae. She must've put me under when she followed me out of the Hokage's office. Lady Tsunade must've known, too, that she'd trap me in her genjutsu and deal with me in a way that I wouldn't realize what she'd done, if only they could bring me out of anybody's sight as soon as possible.

Dragging myself out of bed, I filled the tub with cold water and soaked myself until morning. I drifted in out of sleep while contemplating Sanae's instructions. I worried that she might be wrong. If I told Shikaku that I was not romantic with his son, he might instead detect the heartbreak.

True enough, the following day, I saw Shikaku's name on my list of patients only ten minutes prior his scheduled appointment. I swore it was another shinobi's name on that time slot, but who was Isas to reject a commander's demand for a check up when he wanted one?

I locked myself in the bathroom of the RB2H and arranged my hair. I owed Sanae. I'd have probably lost it if she hadn't warned me, and I wouldn't have allowed her to warn me if she hadn't trapped me in a genjutsu. I closed my eyes and leaned against the tiled wall, exhausted beyond what was reasonable.

A knock on the door turned a switch in my brain. When I opened my eyes, the colors of my surroundings were clearer and my thoughts were steadier. I was a medic alerted to battle - one I would fight against the most intelligent man in the shinobi world.

As I straightened my clothes and walked over to the stool beside my medical paraphernalia, I remembered the last time we had a serious talk was when he made me promise to stay away from Shikamaru. If I could only say it plainly, I would tell him I chose to honor our deal.

Shikaku stepped into the room. He turned his eyes away from the window, not expecting the bright light. I rose and bowed to him, pretended only then to notice his discomfort at the sunlight, and hurried over to the window to pull down the blinds. "I'm sorry, I should've realized it was too bright."

He waved it off. "It's not your fault. I've been pondering about the lighting in my office. They've always told me it's too dim in there but I've never believed them until now."

"I can make recommendations to your assistant if you want, sir."

"Do so, please. This is the second time today that I've been dazzled by sunlight in another's office." He sat on the stool and rolled up his sleeves. "Apologies for the suddenness of my appointment. My wife's been nagging me to get myself checked but I keep on forgetting. This morning, she yelled at me until I was out of the door."

I sat opposite him with a sorry smile. I would've laughed if only we were of the same rank. "Judging by the look of you, it's stress that's triggering your hypertension and the strain in your arms."

He looked me in the eyes, and I held my breath a second too long. He said, "It's that obvious?"

"The Hokage would be ashamed of me I couldn't tell with one look." I opened my hands and raised them. "We can do the usual tests and send them to the laboratory or I can diagnose you bare handed. The latter would sting but it would be faster."

He spent a moment to decide before undoing the hooks of his vest. While he undressed, I sanitized my hands and flexed my fingers. He flung his vest and shirt on an empty trolley and returned to his seat. I usually rubbed my hands to warm them, but he might assume I got the cold fingers due to nerves. Choosing instead to spread heat through my chakra, I touched his shoulder and trailed the chakra path along his arms to get an idea of how wrecked they were due to stress.

The problem with the men from the Nara clan was they had sensitive chakra pathways. Shikamaru had frozen chakra lining his pathways like lipids to muscles after every mission. That was how I realized he wasn't as stoic as I thought him to be. He simply hid his emotions well.

I gasped, struck by Sanae's words then. Men contained their emotions - a basic fact, especially to shinobis. Shikamaru had been telling us since we were children that girls were a drag not as a means to annoy us but as an involuntary admission of his weakness. He couldn't take women's display of emotions, just as Shikaku couldn't take his wife's nagging for him to get a check-up. Away from an actual battlefield, Shikaku was less likely to view any honest expression of my feelings to be a weapon. He'd be, as was in his nature, repelled.

Shikaku called me out. I shook my head and apologized. "It's not as bad as you think," I said. "You have frozen chakra in your pathways by the biceps and forearms. I've dealt with the same problem with Shikamaru so often I'm not surprised you have a similar diagnosis. Does it run in the family?"

His eyebrows twitched. "Our chakra supply is less than most shinobi's because of the shadow binding technique. Controlling other people's movements put a strain on every inch of our chakra pathway, therefore creating tears where chakra clog instead of flows past like normal. I suppose that's one reason we've been blessed with our intellect. We're hardly the most useful in a battle."

"I have to disagree." I located the tears in his other arm and calculated the amount of chakra needed to melt the clogs. After that, I'll have to heal the tears right away. "But Mrs. Nara can rest her mind once she finds out you're not in bad shape. I can write a note if that would help."

"You disagree," he said. "For a kunoichi of your expertise to have that opinion, my son must've done something right in one of your missions."

Here we go, I thought.

"He saved my life more than once." I made sure to pause and smile at him. Touch a delicate topic first and you tip another person's certainty. If he presumed to any degree that I had not lost my memory, this was the last thing he'd expect me to say. And I'd said it. "I wouldn't admit it to his face, but where I misjudge my strength and my opponent's capacity, his shadows always rescue me just in time."

"That's a relief. I'd demote him if I heard he left you unguarded to face an enemy on your own."

"Half the time, I expect him to do exactly that," I said. "In the end, he doesn't."

His skin grew hot, and I took that as the first sign that I was treading on thin ice. The rebirth case nearly cost him his son, and he was still at risk of losing him. I feared I wouldn't win if he used his love for Shikamaru against me. "You speak so fondly of him," he whispered.

I applied gel on his shoulders to prevent burning. "To be honest, I respect him but I'm not fond of him. That could just be my pride though, because I'm used to being the smartest in the squad. This would hurt a bit, but it would ease from there onwards."

I heard his intake of breath as my chakra penetrated his pathway. I let the heat flow to the channels before pressing two fingers on the spot where clogs had formed. This would've been easier with Neji around.

"I assume you've heard about our troubles in the clan."

My chakra faltered. I glimpsed his face before resuming my work. "I've overheard rumours, sir. But I've worked with the Hokage long enough to know better than to gossip about you."

"I don't mind the gossip. It's part of being clan chief."

Done with one. Twenty-three in this arm alone left to unclog.

Shikaku craned his neck to see me. "Has word about his engagement reached your ranks also?"

Similar as before, my chakra flowed in and out of my palms until they dispersed completely. Too late now to act cool. He'd already witnessed my surprise. I counted to three in my head before facing him with wide eyes. "Engagement? Shikamaru? Getting married?"

He gave me a sad smile. "Is it really that much of a shock? In my time, every clan heir wed wives they didn't want."

I returned to my stool, wringing my wrist. I had to stall until I could release a steady flow of chakra again. "Is the problem that big he has to be married? Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sound like I want to pry..."

"It's fine. I was the one who brought it up."

"People will be talking when they find out," I said. "It's out of this world. I hope Shikamaru will be okay."

"He's not." Shikaku motioned to my hand. "What happened?"

This was where Sanae's advise would either be my salvation or my downfall. I had no choice but to try it out, anyway, as I had no strength to act as though I didn't care. I stared at my palm. "Over-usage. It's only been two weeks since I stopped maintaining Shikamaru's pathways and I didn't have the option of doing it the traditional way."

"You're not the one medicating him anymore?"

"No, sir."

"See, you lied."

I looked up at him. "I did?"

"You _are_ fond of Shikamaru. I noticed it in the indent of your pen on the reports you wrote and in the words you chose. I dare say he liked you as his medic. He was doing better until two weeks ago, arond the same time your batch left for the jounin exams. I was curious as to what happened between the two fo you." He put his hands on his knees, his expression serene as he waited for me to respond.

This was his strategy. Approach me with friendliness and suppose that I'd have no reason to deny any feelings I had for Shikamaru given that I lost my memories of the rebirth. He didn't need me to confess - all he needed to hear was a hint of romantic affection and that would be enough of a red flag. The Hokage would murder me if he won.

"He didn't want you to know," I whispered and bowed my head.

"Know what, Sakura?"

Think. Which facts readily available to Shikaku could you use and manipulate? He'd be asking around after this, being a man always in need of evidence and confirmation before he could rest his belief in something and someone.

"It was painful for him, and he'd often cry aloud." He would, and that was a fact. "We agreed that I'd be his medic because he didn't want others spreading stories about him - stories that might reach you and make you worry. Clearing his pathways so chakra could flow properly always hurt him more than it hurt you. He doesn't feel a sting. He feels a burning. I've never told anybody."

Shikaku's lips parted, and I could see his composure fall bit by bit at the image of his son's sufferings. I took a deep breath, chin now level, and voice louder. "I cared about him. I do with all my patients, especially if they're the same people I grew up with in the Academy and entrusted my life to in missions."

I remembered the pond in the Third Training Ground, and how the light and shadows danced around us. I remembered him half-awake on a hospital bed, begging me to write on his arm so he would not forget, even with his memories erased, that he had to look after me. I erased what I wrote on his arm, though, because I cared about him enough to understand he'd forgo his safety for mine and I couldn't stomach the loss of him. I cared about him to the point that I fell in love with him.

"But he's distraught," I said. "He's so stressed about the entire thing. I knew something was up that he wasn't telling even Ino and Choji. In one of his appointments with me, I confronted him about...visiting the Southern District and he didn't say anything. The next I knew, he'd already filed a request for a transfer to another medic."

Shikaku put on his shirt. "I understand."

"I haven't finished with the procedure - "

He put his hand up. "It's alright. I can return another day."

"Please...please don't tell him. I don't think he's returned there since, that's why I didn't want to make a fuss about it. Lady Tsunade might have addressed it already."

"Sakura," he said, "You were doing your job. There's nothing to sound sorry or guilty for. If he's messing around in the Southern District, that would affect his health and hinder his progress. It's my son's fault if he's 'distraught' as you put it. I also should've taken better notice of his activities. I'm his father for crying out loud!"

I pressed my lips together, uncertain whether I was fighting a frown or a smile. I'd have to tell Shikamaru about this lie, and although it felt good to get back at him for his engagement, I loathed myself for using an old strain between father-and-son to save ourselves from suspicion. Shikamaru hadn't been to the Southern District at all since the rebirth case, and he'd vowed at the beginning of our relationship never to go again. I believed he still kept his word to this day.

Shikaku put his hand on my head, making me jump on my seat. "Thank you, Sakura, for doing your best for my son. Konoha is indeed lucky to have you."

 **Naruto:**

There hadn't been a second encounter, but I'd been restless since.

Grandma and Master Jiraiya didn't think it was necessary to erase my memories of the rebirth seeing as I was always out of the village. Besides, they finally acknowledged without my having to drive it into their brains that Sakura and Sasuke were more than comrades. They were family - the first I ever had. If Sasuke did sell out Sakura to Orochimaru for that rebirth experiment, then I would make him pay.

I picked out the thistles stuck to my clothes from roaming the perimeter of the Fire Country with Master Jiraiya today. I hoped to at least have an encounter with Sasuke to settle this once and for all. No, I didn't intend to give up on him. What I had to decide on fast was whether or not I could involve Sakura in this search for him.

Just the thought of her in danger made me angry.

The banging on the door reverbrated throughout my apartment. I felt my bed quake, and I wondered if the Akatsuki finally found me. Were they knocking so I would assume it was somebody I knew?

"Naruto!"

I leapt to my feet and sprinted to the front door. Definitely not the Akatsuki. Sakura's temper was worse. I couldn't remember whether or not I took the medicine in the order she told me to.

I pulled the door a crack. Sakura kicked it wide open and marched into my apartment. I ran after her to where she left the medicines on the counter. She raced me to them. Falling on my knees, I begged her to please not be mad at me for forgetting because really, who could remember so many instructions when I just returned home a couple of days earlier? It was her fault for not writing things down like she always did for me.

Sakura glimpsed me once, silent, and went to the kitchen to boil water. She prepared instant ramen for both of us and instructed me to take the violet pill. "It's the last one and it's suppose to calm your muscles."

I nodded and remained sitting on the table like a child, baffled by her behavior. Something must be up. Her tyrant self only appeared when something didn't go as she planned.

Sakura set the ramen on the table and told me to eat. I nearly choked as I wolfed down my share, thinking she'd want me to finish soon so she could watch me take the violet pill, but the reality of the situation crashed on me when I noted that Sakura hadn't touched her food. She stared at the steaming bowl with glazed eyes.

I lowered my bowl and reached out to her. "Hey, Sakura, what's wrong?"

Her lips quivered. She turned to me, her cheeks already wet with tears. "Naruto."

"Whoa, what's the matter?"

"Naruto, I don't want to do this anymore."

"Look after me? I know I'm the worst patient, but even the Nine-Tails can't keep me alive and kicking for this long if you're not here! C'mon, I promise I'll try hard to remember your instructions!"

She shook her head. Strands of hair clung to her cheeks. "Naruto, I don't want to be a medic. I hate it. I hate that my parents are away serving the feudal lord. I hate that you're always out of the village and I'm not sure whether I'd lose you too any day now. I feel so alone and I'm not sure my heart can take it. I hate my life, Naruto."

"Don't say those things, Sakura. We wouldn't know what to do without you. I mean it. Man, my life would suck if nobody healed me or shoved medicines down my throat even before I knew I needed them!" I said. "Who would defend Sai when he offends someone in the inns we stay in? I don't have money to pay for the damages we do where we stay during missions. Kakashi won't say it, but he likes you in his squad because you're the most responsible kunoichi he's ever met. We'll be lost without you!"

I stood to be by her side as I'd wished many times in my childhood for someone to do whenever I felt that loneliness she spoke of. Before I could say anything more, however, she threw her arms around me and buried her face on my stomach. I embraced her back.

I listened to her sobs and I noted the weakness of her grip. I knew right then what this was. Heartache. A longing for someone. This was the same grip I had on my pillow whenever I wanted to dream of my parents but couldn't conjure an image of them.

All she needed was to cry it out like I did, and I let her take as long as she had to even if it meant spoiling a dinner of hot ramen.


	7. Chapter 7

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

 **Shikamaru:**

I didn't take my medicines today. As I fed Yutsuki her breakfast, I counted the hours before I'd be in withdrawal. Sure, I'd feel the burning in my pathways and may even be crippled in the middle of the road, but I missed the sharpness of my brain.

Yutsuki opened her mouth wide. She reached for the spoon and nearly cried when I took too long to feed her. She smiled at me while chewing; her fat cheeks blotched with pink.

Midway reaching for another spoonful, Yutsuki whipped her head towards the door and pointed at it. She rubbed the tattoo on her ankle with her other hand.

This was another reason I had to keep myself sharp. Dad was the last person I should ever underestimate. Now that the shock of my engagement had worn off, I could study the structure of his decisions from an objective standpoint.

Posting guards in our house was a clever move, but choosing a clan guard of all people to partner me with was too odd a choice to settle with. There were other minor clans with powerful Kunoichi the Pillars wouldn't object to, so why not make the offer to them? Marrying me into my own clan must benefit dad in some way if he was intent on pursuing this road.

Dad entered the dining hall just as Yutsuki predicted. He sat opposite me and complained about Uncle Toya singing like a drunk so early in the morning. "Your mother wants to torment me for something I did but don't know about. I'm certain of it, Shikamaru. Why else would she let Toya live here for this long?"

"I must've done something to annoy her, too." The truth of the matter was, Uncle Toya wasn't just here to recover from his recent loss. They invited him to remain here due to his incedible sensory skills and thought I wouldn't notice. When I was eleven, he broke down my bedroom door and claimed there was a suspiscious chakra nearby. Mum and dad stumbled into the room after him and we discovered Choji eating midnight snacks under his blanket. The poor guy cried until mum was able to convince him that he broke no house rule by eating whenever he wanted to. Dad informed Uncle Toya that the side-effect of the Akimichi clan's jutsus generated unusual amounts of chakra in their abdominal area, hence their appetiate. To make it up to Choji, he treated him to a barbeque restaurant at the expense of my birthday gift. I chuckled at the memory and said, "But I'm glad he keeps mum from stressing out on the Pillars and the engagement."

"He doesn't have the same effect on me." He tipped Yutsuki's head back and cleared her chin of food.

"Dad?"

"What, Shikamaru?"

"Why a clan guard?"

He paused from wiping her neck. "We've talked about this before. Have you forgotten already?"

"Find somebody else. Or I will. All we need is someone physically able from a decent clan," I said. "There's more benefit in that than to marry within our clan. Unless, of course, there's something you're not telling me."

Dad removed Yutsuki's bib and transferred her to his lap. "You're taking this marriage seriously?"

"Don't you want me to?"

"Then stop going to the Southern District, Shikamaru." He stood and turned towards the sliding door behind him. "That's one good start as heir of my clan."

I stared at the sliding door long after he and Yutsuki had gone. I wouldn't make sense of his accusation until that evening when we convened for another one of our secret meetings. Sanae and I bumped into each other in the corridor leading to the meeting room, and she warned me that Sakura knew I had a fiancé.

I barely had any chance to interrogate her when the ANBU opened the double doors for us. Inside, Sakura and Inoichi stood with heads bowed and hands flat on a political map of Konoha. Lady Tsunade told them about a law which protected the rights of farmers outisde our village. Inoichi acknowledge us with a curt greeting, but Sakura continued to encircle zones as per the open book beside her.

"What's happening?" I asked. The burning in my pathways had subsided earlier. I hoped it would stay subtle if only until this meeting ended. I needed my wits here.

Sanae nodded at the map. "You want to investigate it, after all?"

"Apart from the farmers encountering new bear attacks, ANBU reported seeing a cloaked figure roaming the farmer's territory and then fleeing west," said Inoichi. "The next day, a farming town at the perimeter of the Fire Country's border asked for our assistance due to an unexplainable death among them. The ANBU studied the tracks and, although there were many left by the same person to confuse us, one led to the direction of the same town that called our attention. I sent Tenten to study the corpse and ask around, and she confirmed the injuries were not from an animal. Tenten is unsure of what weapon it could be, given it were a weapon."

Sakura flipped to previous pages of the book to double check her markings. "It was also within that time frame I scouted the village alone and felt something in the direction of the farmer's town, although it was too subtle I couldn't confirm if it was the same presence from the bridge."

I hoped to catch her eye, gauge where our relationship stood in this wreckage. "Were there records of the previous victim's injuries?"

"The town people are being stubborn." Sakura capped her pen. "They won't divulge our unit with further information. They're claiming we have no right to interfere with their lives unless they permit us."

I moved to her side of the table. She didn't shy away from me, although I knew this to be pride rather than a comfortable acceptance of me. It took only one look at the encircled zones on the map for me to understand their plans. "What? We're waiting for another kill that we have a political right to investigate?"

"That's the suspicious part," Sanae said. "None of the bodies were found on terrain that's politically ours - the very same places where the women usually linger for flowers and other supplies. Then again, there's a possibility the bears could have been wise enough to drag their victims across zones to prevent them being hunted down by shinobis with spears."

Inoichi drew an X where the town was. "They could either be lying or being manipulated into lying."

"We'll have trouble with the feudal lords if we meddle with them now given the circumstances," Sakura said. She folded her arms across her chest and asked me if I had a better plan than to wait for another kill, for it looked like the pattern would lead to one.

"What pattern?"

"The women are virgins with active chakra channels," Sakura said.

I turned to Lady Tsunade. "They're originally from a Hidden Village?"

"Migration isn't well handled nowadays. Men and women elope. Choose to live in small towns and whatnot," she answered. "We can't prohibit it like our founding fathers used to. It's been proven that there's no such thing as viruses or abnormalities developed when a person from a shinobi line produces a child with an average human. So yes, Shikamaru, we can try to trace back their lineage for any more clues as to how they're chosen but that would take a great deal of time and meddling with clans."

"I meant if we can prove their lineage then we don't need to wait for another kill." I tapped the X mark. "If this migration has been going for a long time, then there's a chance many of the people in this town are from a shinobi lineage from Konoha and we have a right to put them under interrogation."

Sakura gasped and collapsed on her seat. Lady Tsunade rushed to her side. I crouched next to her and asked what was wrong. She shivered but said it was nothing. "I felt sick for a moment. I'm fine."

"Baby kicking?" Sanae batted her lashes at Sakura and me.

Sakura flushed a deep red, but I could see more of it was from the pain than from Sanae's implications. "Maybe you need to rest," I said.

Sakura shut her eyes and held her stomach. "Tracing their lineage will take time, but we have enough people in our disposal to do that work for us, don't we, sir?"

Inoichi chose to follow her lead and proceed as though nothing happened to her. He rolled the map. "I'll handle this. It'll take about two weeks, but I hope to have progress on this matter in that amount of time. Now that we've decided on a course of action for that, I believe there's something else we need to discuss."

Lady Tsunade reached down to touch Sakura's abdomen. Sensing nothing wrong - or growing - she rubbed Sakura's back to diagnose her through such a simple action. "Ah, right. It's a recent discovery while we were having a meeting with Shikaku and the rest of the team."

"He's catching up, isn't he?" Sanae, for once, appeared threatened enough not to make fun of this news. Her lack of sarcasm doubled the weight of this burden on us.

"More than catching up," said the hokage, "he might put a question mark where we put a period to things."

Sakura stood at that, gawking at Lady Tsunad e in disbelief. "What do you mean?"

"Shikamaru's fiance is supposed to be a clan guard but he sounded sure that he could get from her intel that only scholars have," she said. "We didn't and couldn't go that far to solve the case by ourselves. Shikaku's initial findings would be the same as ours - of that, I have no doubt - but I'm worried this deeper well of knowledge might open a new facet to the answer that would require us to recalculate our solution."

It was my turn to sit. "That cant' be right. Scholars are near-sacred. A clan guard can't have any useful information."

Sakura whipped around to look at me. The paleness of her complexion and the agony behind her frown relayed my own fears from when we were still together. She knew as I did that if our findings were incomplete, our entire mission was jeopardized and I had failed to make us secure. " _Are you sure_ , _Shikamaru_?"

Of course not, Sakura. All I could promise was that I did my best during phase one, thinking all along that dad wouldn't have access to the scholars due to the Pillars' watchful eyes. He knew I never interacted with them concerning forbidden jutsus, hence the automatic cancellation of their relevance to whatever I did in my attempt to rescue her from the rebirth ceremony. "It doesn't make sense why he would assume I'd have performed a jutsu only scholars would know."

Sanae sat on the table and leaned forward. She pointed at me. "You, young man, told us it was through your grandfather that you knew those scripts."

"Yes, but if it's _that_ confidential then my grandfather is not allowed to study it," I said.

"If it's so common, then why doesn't your father recognize it?" Sakura asked.

"I bet a part of him does," I told her. "But we all know he won't divulge anybody with anything he hasn't already concluded by himself. If I were him, I'd be looking into something else done in the pond or a reaction among the present elements to turn a complex but not a forbidden command into a weapon to pull you in the direction opposite the rebirth."

Sakura cast her eyes on her boots. I would've apologized for bringing it up - the rebirth still gave her nightmares - but I hated how she acted as though I was to blame for this endangerment of our team. The burden was there without anybody having to say it. When she would've once voiced her support, she now voiced her questions. And she did this all because I was stuck in an engagement I couldn't escape.

Lady Tsunade shared a glance with Inoichi. "Actually, Shikamaru, that's something Shikaku will have to investigate once all of this is over. Based on our last meeting, Shikaku is already suspecting it to be a forbidden jutsu. Why Michio broke his oath by probing it, we still don't know."

Sanae slipped off the table and onto her chair. She smiled at Inoichi and Lady Tsunade. "Orochimaru can capture Shikamaru and make him resolve it. He would need time, but he'll get his answer."

"Erasing the solution from them was to accomplish that exactly," said Inoichi. "To buy time in case he's abducted and - worse - pressued to solve it against the odds by putting Sakura's life on the line."

"My father could become a target as well," I said.

"I didn't involve him in this secret team in fear that he already was, Shikamaru," Lady Tsunade said. "That's another reason I can't postpone your engagement in spite of the threat of your fiance. Given they do discover something new, Shikaku would let me know first and I can handle it before their team takes the lead against ours and Orochimaru can get information. Besides, if it is a forbidden jutsu then we have to know why your clan concealed it even to their chief."

Sanae laughed. "Shikamaru, your confusion shows how little time you spend minding your clan's business. No wonder the Pillars are angry."

Lady Tsunade muttered under her breath that she wished Sanae would shut up sometimes, and then said, "I'm at least a little relieved to have guards in your house while we are at a critical point. Speaking of which, Sakura has already done a fine job of throwing Shikaku off our scent."

I watched her pained expression, waiting for her to explain, but it was Sanae who answered for her. "Shikaku noticed. He musn't have expected you to agree to the engagement, Shikamaru, and this little hitch in your stream of protest caught his attention. It would have been less suspicious if you hadn't sulked during the two weeks Sakura was away and she stopped being your medic. But when you submit to your father's plan soon after Sakura's return, it was bound to get him thinking. My spies told me he'd requested for Sakura's reports and he'd been reviewing books on handwriting. It's a good thing Sakura here does write reports affectionately for majority of her patients."

"Did he go to you, Sakura?"

Our commanding officers remained silent. She swallowed and looked me in the eyes. "I told him some truths. That I cared for you. That you were in deep pain whenever I melted the frozen chakra in your pathways. I made up a story about me agreeing to be your medic so there's no gossip about what you have to go through in order to get back into shape. But you...you were distraught and frequented the Southern District and I so happened to confront you and you requested a transfer to another medic that's why we're not in good terms at the moment."

I hunched forward and pressed the insides of my eyes. Tactically, it was the best move she could've made. She knew my father hated how I went to the Southern District before the rebirth case started. She knew she'd get a reaction from him and steer his attention away from his suspicions.

 _That's what stung._

She knew this was the one thing between clan chief and heir that strained our bond. He couldn't have me visiting the Southern District now of all times. There were other stories - other reasons behind a valid argument - but she chose _that_.

"Congratulations, Sakura." I removed my hands from my face and stood. "It worked. I now understand where his little outburst this morning was from. If we're done here, I'll have to go down to the Southern District to have witnesses in case dad probes this matter."

 **Ino:**

What sucked most for shinobis doing hospital work was that average medics recognized our superior ability to command patients returning from military duty - and to hunt them down if needed.

I had just finished assisting Shizune in a ten-hour major operation when Saya came running to me with the news that Watanabe had escaped the ER and was probably running around with a bleeding abdomen. Instead of scolding her for not grabbing the nearest shinobi to handle this emergency, I changed out of my scrubs and bolted out the hospital in search of that damn Watanabe.

I checked his apartment as per standard procedure and was not surprised to find it empty. With my temper restrained only by exhaustion, I stomped around a village half-asleep and belatedly realized there was only one place Watanabe could go to distract himself from his injury.

Traditional music echoed in the streets a long way before the Southern District came into view. The acoustics, combined with warm light from hanging lanterns, nearly made me forget why I came. Really, it wasn't such a bad place if not for the abundance of alcohol and the women who took advantage of men who'd had their fill.

I slipped past crowds of people with the occasional laughing men interlaced with women half their age. Some of them, I saw in the other side of town during the day. They were daughters of shop owners or orphans of fallen shinobis. Lady Tsunade could not have them arrested because there existed neither a syndicate nor proof of forced prostitution. They did this out of free will, but claimed they had no choice because they were in need. Our village was constantly in danger and losing men, and we were so short on funds and manpower that we could not alleviate these issues within our own people.

My steps slowed as I came upon a reflective surface in one of the restaurants. And here I was, I thought, looking down on them because I was lucky to have a father who would do anything for me.

A man's hand parted the curtain of beaded strings hanging at the main entrance. I had only taken one step forward when the man and I caught each other's gaze.

Shikamaru's left eye twitched. He slipped back inside the restaurant, but I grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out. "You!" I peered inside to check if there were barely-clothed women lingering about and saw only a singer on a raised platform and a bunch of waiters in kimonos. I retuned my attention to his face to look for kiss marks and check for swollen lips. Apart from his reddening face, he didn't look as though he'd been groping someone in the dark. "What are you doing here, Shikamaru? You, of all people, should not be seen in this area. _Ever_."

He rubbed his glazed eyes and sliced the air with his hand." Look, Ino, I didn't come here to fool around."

"It looks and smells like you came here for a drink and we all know where that leads."

"But I'm not drunk," he shouted above the noise of the hooting crowd behind him. He jolted, squinted at me, and asked whether Uncle Shikaku sent me to spy on him. I was going to hit him on the head if only I hadn't heard Watanabe yelling at the waiter to bring him another drink.

I looked over my shoulder and found him sitting alone outside a bar. On the round table were three shot glasses. I pulled Shikamaru to a corner and ordered him to stay until I returned. He crouched beside a trash bin and tipped his head back, gawking at the lanterns above him.

Sakura endorsed Watanabe to me four days ago after he was declared fit to be discharged. I took care of patients returning for check-ups and continual treatment of minor wounds, but Sakura still saw to it I had full access to their medical history and a summary of the missions they came from. Watanabe, apparently, had lost two of his closest friends upon his return from an S-class mission. He visited the hospital earlier today complaining to all nurses that the wound across his abdomen itched, after which I determined that his scratching required me to redo his stitching and his attitude necessitated a visit to the counselor.

I imagined what I would do to him. Smack him back to his senses and let him bleed himself unconscious. As I marched towards him, however, I was struck with the realization that the untouched shot glasses were for his two dead comrades. I had seen a picture of their team. The yellow bandana in front of one shot glass belonged to the girl, and the broken eyeglasses in front of the other shot glass belonged to the younger man.

My temper subsided. Perhaps I should handle this the way Sakura would.

Taking the empty seat to his right, I pulled up his bloody shirt and started healing his wound. "Do you seriously think they would be happy if you die from blood loss while inside the very village they died to protect?"

Watanabe yelped, raised the bottle of sake over his head, and lowered it upon recognizing me. "Hey, you're that blond chic who checked my stitches earlier, no?" He peered at his torn flesh regenerating and knitting together. "Can't you be quicker? I'm giving them a proper goodbye and you just had to interrupt!"

I bit my tongue and focused all my chakra on my palm. Watanabe reclined on his chair. He put his arms behind his head as though sunbathing. Sakura was in my mind, telling me to stay calm because these people were hurt and needed medics to support them.

I took out two pills from my emergency med kit and made him swallow them. He beamed at me. This idiot probably thought I fed him with his maintenance pills which I bet he forgot to take also. Watanabe's smile faded as felt the effects just seconds later, and he made an attempt to grab my hair before his body gave in to sleep.

Shikamaru sat next to me. He asked if I'd be needing help carrying him back to the hospital. I waited until Watanabe's head dropped forward before saying, "We'll have to do it fast. I also fed him with a burst of saline for his drunkenness so it might make the sleeping pill less effective."

Shikamaru, although a bit tipsy, slung the man across his back and kept pace with me. I waited until we were out of the Southern District before saying, "You're not in bad shape if you can put that much weight on you when you're not sober."

"I'm not drunk, Ino."

"Yeah, whatever, Shikamaru," I said. "So are you going to tell me what got you visiting that place again?"

He pulled Watanabe further up his back, nose wrinkled at the stench of blood and booze. "I'm getting married. Haven't you heard?"

"...Makoto told me and Sakura the other day."

Shikamaru grunted. "I'm going to kill him. Or maybe Sakura will kill me first. Maybe I should find him tonight. What do you think? It's like my mind is fogged or something."

I would've laughed if not for the mention of Sakura. "Why's she gonna kill you?"

"No, Ino, I'm going to kill him."

"Sakura. You said Sakura. Why is she going to kill you?"

Shikamaru remained silent for a while. We passed the main road where only three shops remained open to accommodate the nocturnal people of the village, most of them shinobis either returning from missions or waiting to be deployed at dawn. Time dragged on in his silence. I thought my mind would explode. "Shikamaru?"

"She's not mine anymore." He cleared his throat. "My medic. Got into a stupid fight two weeks ago because...well, I supposedly come to the Southern District too often. You're gonna tell her and she's gonna kill me."

Right. Shikamaru was transferred back to Lady Tsunade's care after Sakura left for the jounin exams. I thought it was only until she returned from Suna. Sakura hadn't mentioned anything about arguing with Shikamaru. "I delivered Aunt Yoshino's favorite flowers yesterday to your house but you weren't there when I arrived. She was so happy. I'm guessing your parents don't know you're at it again?"

Shikamaru glowered at me. "At it again?"

Saya jumped up from the steps of the hospital at the first sight of us. She called Isas to help Shikamaru put Watanabe on a bed. Saya assured me that she could manage without further assistance.

Shikamaru dozed off in the rehabilitation garden while I was finishing a report on Watanabe. Knowing I couldn't send him home drunk, I bought food for us and got him hooked on a drip. He asked, after three spoonfuls, if eating here was allowed, and I said nobody would reprimand us at two in the morning. He took a strip of beef from my rice box. "How's your rebellion to your father going?"

"It's on-going," I said. "It won't stop until he breaks up with that woman. Anyway, my drama is not as dramatic as yours. It kinda makes me feel like you stole my spotlight."

"Wanna ask Inoichi to get you a fiance?"

I elbowed him. "I'm already happy with Kiba so no thanks."

"It sucks." He scraped out with his spoon every last bit of rice. "Instead of me introducing a girl to my parents, it's them introducing my wife to me."

I uncapped his bottle of water and handed it to him. "Try to see it in a positive light. It's your village she'll live in, and your friends she'll be forced to hang out with. Unless, of course, you plan to stay a recluse until you die. Choji and I are already beginning to think you're withdrawing from the gang."

"Sorry, Ino." He lifted the bottle to his lips, paused, and lowered it again. "These past months have been one of the hardest for me."

I wanted to tell him it wasn't easy for me either to see my first love and childhood friend subdued in the world of clan politics. "I can't fix your problem no matter how much I wish I could, but I can promise you we've got your back, Shikamaru. No matter what happens."

He bowed his head, shut his eyes, and plucked at his shirt. I asked if he was going to cry, and he said no. I saw his jaws tense and his breathing quicken.

"Shikamaru..." I put my hand on his back. "It's that bad, huh?"

He pressed the inner corner of his eyes. Tears skated down the length of his left hand. While he struggled to contain his sobs, I wondered if there was something else he was not telling me. I didn't think he had such a grand picture of what his family life would be like that an arranged marriage would cause this kind of reaction. I leaned my head on his shoulder as I listened to him cry. The longer I listened, the better I heard the sound of heartache.

 **Sakura:**

I sat on the edge of the hospital bed with my knees pulled to my bare chest. Lady Tsunade's hand hovered along the length of my back, checking every possible source of the pain that came at me like blows.

"Apart from fatigue, there's no abnormality that could cause the symptoms you describe." She motioned for me to put on my blouse. "You've only felt it during our meeting?"

 **"** Yeah. It knocked me down. Good thing there was a chair behind me."

"My initial diagnosis had been heartbreak but what you're describing is something else."

I zipped up my blouse. "I'm not heartbroken. I'm shocked and pissed off about Shikamaru's engagement happening so soon after our break-up, but that's all. We can't deny it's smart of of Mr. Shikaku to pull that off. Plus, I'm relieved Shikamaru won't lose his inheritance."

Lady Tsunade stretched her arms behind her and yawned. "You blabber too much nonsense when you're in denial, Sakura. You'll still be in a roller coaster of emotions for a while."

"I'm not heartbroken."

"It's okay to be heartbroken, Sakura." She slipped on her robe and checked her reflection on the mirror. She could've just asked me and I would've told her that her youth was still intact. "We sacrifice a lot of things in the process of securing our mission. Shikamaru might not appreciate it now, but any further attempt to postpone or evade his engagement would've tipped Shikaku about your relationship. Sanae saved our cover by plotting that confrontation between you and Shikaku. Your sacrifice led Shikamaru to agree to be married and now we can focus on other important matters."

More important matters, she meant. Everybody wanted to say it. There were more important matters than my relationship with Shikamaru, and now that it was out of the way, we could all proceed without tiptoeing around that fragile romance.

I went home still aching all over. Suna's claims against me might as well be true. This sting beneath my skin ebbed and flowed like withdrawal from an enhancing drug and, although I'd never experienced it myself, I had witnessed enough shinobis suffer through it.

One of them was Shikamaru.

I tossed around in my bed, unable to take him off my mind. We sometimes made him fast from food and meds during some tests to find out the true status of his body. He'd grip his hair and cry out, and I had to sometimes strap his arms to keep him from injuring himself. Whenever I was free to lock the door, I'd lay beside him and he'd embrace me until I was uncomfortable. He willed himself to overcome his pain with the assurance that I was by his side. I was never going to abandon him.

The same scene looped in my head throughout the following morning and made me feel as though I was getting over a hangover. While I made rounds in the hospital, I saw Shikamaru in each hospital bed and recovery room, in every testing lab and physical therapy area. The last person I visited before noon was Shikamaru's cousin, Makoto. His arm was healing as it should but, as per Emiko, he skipped his meds whenever he contributed to the plans with regards to the arrival of Shikamaru's bride.

It was so easy to inject him with a formula that would silence his tongue. I listened to him ramble on and on about the intricacy of a Nara heir marrying within his clan. It was such an honor to witness this event, as it hasn't happened in at least six generations.

I tapped my pen against the clipboard where his prognosis was. "It can't be that difficult that you should skip your meds. It's just a route and a couple of traditional ceremonies."

"You don't understand it because you don't come from our kind of clan." Makoto cradled his injured arm, smiling at the ceiling where he envisioned their plans unfolding. "This is history for us and a milestone for our future chief. The meds keep me hazy all the time and I can't have a hazy mind when all my intellectual prowess is required!"

And like that, it clicked. The offense of his remark about the insignificance of my clan took a backseat to the realization he helped me make.

Shikamaru, had he taken his meds, shouldn't have been stable and quick as he had been during the meeting. How he kept the pain of the withdrawal from showing on his face was beyond me. But it was something he would do - a pain he would endure for the sake of the team and our mission.

I dissolved Makoto's meds and injected him with it, lying that it was a strong pain reliever instead. He beamed at me with appreciation as I walked away. I gave him my sweetest smile because my revenge deserved it.

I switched to my casual clothes and left the hospital. Under the afternoon heat and my anxiety over Shikamaru's health, I let my feet lead me to where I could find him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

 **Shikaku:**

I wasn't imagining it.

Yoshino often complained that she couldn't get anything through to me when I was focused on my work. That had been a major stumbling block in our marriage – one that caused her to ignore me until Shikamaru's birth because I couldn't be bothered to turn in her direction while I was in the middle of strategizing an S-class mission.

That was why, when the hairs in my arms rose and my attention deterred from the paperwork in front of me, I knew I wasn't imagining what I had sensed. I called for Daisuke to finish reading the proposal sent by the village architect and to report a summary to me upon my return. He climbed over his desk to avoid spilling the piles of books and papers that surrounded him, and asked where I was going.

Mimiko raised her head from the scrolls she was sealing for delivery, took one look at me, and held her hand out for Daisuke to stop. He froze as though she had paralyzed him with a ninjutsu. She pointed at my desk. "Do as the boss says. Now."

In spite of the urgency I felt, I smirked at the reminder that people from my clan knew me best.

I chose to travel the same route we used when we sent Shikamaru and Sakura to our forest lodging at the commencement of the rebirth case. Time seemed to move backwards the deeper I went into the woods. Through the gaps in the forest canopy, I saw grey clouds spilling in like ocean waves. The sky exhaled icy wind that made me shiver, as though to foreshadow what I came here to see.

Around twenty stags and does stood in a circle in the clearing behind the house. They craned their long, thick necks to see me. The waft of iron in the air warned me to reach for my kunai. I entered the clearing, trying to sense for any unwelcome presence in my territory, and approached the deer with caution. Like grass bent by the force of wind, they lowered themselves to the ground to reveal what it was they had guarded.

I stopped at a distance at the sight of blood. A stag lay at the center, blood spurting from his neck. A fawn pressed his snout against my palm. I motioned for him to turn the other way, and when he did; I maneuvered my way to the center of the herd.

On the dead stag's stomach, the perpetrator carved a circle three inches thick. The chunks of meat he took out lay on the blood-soaked grass. It was my family insignia except without the intersecting lines on the inside. I supposed whoever trespassed and murdered my deer failed to time his crime properly and went away without finishing his mission.

The fawn reappeared beside me. He pressed his snout against my knee. I rubbed the length of his neck and said, "I will avenge this death, I promise."

 **Ino:**

I kept my feet wide apart for balance as I bent my knees and ducked my head to merge with the shadow that the nearby tree had cast over the roof. The wind played with my hair, and for once I was glad that it was so short I did not have to brush if off my face.

Beside me, TenTen sneezed.

I covered her mouth with my hand and pulled us down the other side of the roof, deeper into the shadows.

TenTen wriggled free of me. "She's not a ninja that she should hear me from up here, Ino. The damn woman hadn't even paused the entire hour we've been following her."

"I won't risk getting seen." I glimpsed her silhouette on the road, a lone figure in the empty street of this residential faction of Konoha village. "If dad discovers that I'm spying on his girlfriend, he won't talk to me until he has to because he's proposed to her and they need me to be present in the wedding like the good girl I'm supposed to be."

TenTen hopped to the next roof and laded without a sound. I leapt and joined her on the water pipe, standing on tiptoes to see our prey better.

"You're convinced Sir Inoichi will propose to this Matsui woman?"

"Tazu Matsui," I corrected her. "And yes, I'm really convinced that he'll propose to her soon. Why do you think I left the house?"

"Did you at least uncover evidence?"

" _Who are you_?" I gasped. "TenTen never asks for 'evidence'. Did you eat Shikamaru's brain?"

She put her hands on her waist and tossed her chin up. "Romantic matters that are of this severity call for evidence, Ino. You can never assume that a man will propose to a woman simply because he allows her to spend the night in his house or he spends the night in her house or he constantly makes everybody feel that he won't last a day without at least seeing her-"

"- Exactly why I'm disgusted by dad at the moment!"

"No, you need concrete proof," she said. "Ino, you wouldn't have moved out if your dad didn't do something that really offended you. Spit it out and I'll be the judge of whether he is proposing to this woman."

I dragged my feet to the edge of the roof and leapt to the neighboring apartment building. TenTen tailed me silently, a sign that she wasn't going to mutter another word until I came clean. On the street below us, Tazu greeted a woman and her child as they passed through their front gate.

I hated her red lipstick and her long legs and her brown hair.

"I hate her," I said. "It's because of her that dad put down his wedding picture and boxed away his wedding ring. It's all her fault."

"Shit, Ino." TenTen dragged me away from the building's edge. "He is going to propose to her."

"What did I tell you?"

"Why so fast?" She pressed her hands against her cheeks and stared wide-eyed at me. "This is wrong. How long have they been together? Two months? Three?"

"Six weeks."

"Six weeks!"

"Six fucking weeks." I slogged along the building's perimeter, following Tazu as she turned the corner. "This is the only exercise she does, isn't it? Walk the same route in the evening, greet people, get fresh air, return home, eat dinner, visit my dad if possible...hey, is she doing hand formations?"

TenTen squinted to see. "Can't be. She must be stretching her fingers. I would be if I were planting flowers in the morning and trimming them in the afternoon."

"Do you think dad is trying to impress her with his ninja skills?" I mimicked the hand formation she was doing, speeding up the transition from one command to another, and rummaged my memory for this technique. "Yeah, she's just stretching her fingers. It doesn't even have elemental summon to it, what she's doing."

"Ino, Tazu not a ninja." TenTen glowered at me. "She hasn't even noticed us and we've been spying on her for a week. She's not that kind of threat to your father. She just made him fall in love with her."

"If she's not a serial killer – "

"Ino! TenTen!"

The two of us jumped backwards and searched the street for the idiot who disclosed our presence. TenTen elbowed me. "Two o'clock. Choji Akimichi."

I stood straight to see the network of streets connected to the one we were in. "Hey, Tazu's gone."

"TenTen! Ino! Yohoo!"

We leapt down and raced each other to smacking Choji. I won. Choji held his forehead and winced. "What was that for, Ino?"

"You idiot! Don't you see we were on a mission?"

"Mission?" He looked back and fro TenTen and me. "Inside of Konoha? You haven't been promoted to ANBU, have you? Oh, hey, Kiba! Did you know that TenTen and Ino are on a mission? As in, _right now_?"

I shivered. TenTen whistled. Choji busied himself with searching his pockets for food.

Kiba dropped his arm around my shoulders. "So, still in that mission, huh? You said you'd be in the hospital for night shift. Is Tazu Matsui a patient who ran away?"

I folded my arms against my chest. "I've got no reason to apologize for wanting to do a background check on the woman who has seduced my father."

Choji grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Ino."

Kiba opened his mouth, closed it, and wrinkled his nose. "TenTen, what is that smell on you?"

Akamaru growled.

TenTen sniffed her clothes. "I've already changed my clothes twice since coming from that trip out of the village. It's your fault you've got that nose, Kiba."

I leaned closer to her. "I don't smell anything."

"It's the stench of death." Kiba gagged. "I hate that smell. Been dead for a while – rotting, even. Young woman, probably nineteen...horrible death, eh?"

"I'll never understand how the smell of a corpse can determine that," I told him.

Kiba smirked. "You've got a genius for a boyfriend!"

"Yeah, yeah, every guy says that."

Choji offered a bag of potato chips to TenTen. "What were you doing with a corpse?"

She sniffed her elbow. "Sir Inoichi had Master Guy and me check out this mutilated woman and identify whether the marks on her flesh were caused by animal claws or human insanity. I haven't made the report yet but I'm assuming the claw marks are from a dagger that originated from the fifth generation of the Morikubo Clan who were famous for their-"

"Oh goodness, TenTen, skip the specifications on the weapon and get on with the story!" I said.

"The rest of her flesh was hand-scraped – especially around the face. Can't identify her with the amount of injury she received and the time that has lapsed since her death." She smelled her fingers and stuck her tongue out. "Disgusting. The blood doesn't wash away so easily, it's frustrating!"

I clung to Kiba's arm. "Hand-scraped?"

"It's weird, really." TenTen shooed Akamaru. "Hey, stop smelling me!"

"Too late." Kiba clicked his tongue to call his dog back to him. "We've already memorized the woman's scent. I'll tell you if her ghost is following you."

Choji shoved the bag of potato chips to TenTen's face. "C'mon, it will make you feel good. This is a special edition, too. Won't find any of these anymore."

I glanced behind me - at the empty street that Tazu had passed. Kiba pecked my cheek and whispered that I shouldn't worry too much about dad. He'd be fine. Tazu seemed like she was serious enough about making him happy.

He jerked his head to our left and untangles himself from me. "We've got company."

Kakashi emerged from the gloom. He balanced on the fence and flicked his hand up. "Yo."

"Good evening, sir," said Choji. "What happened to your book?"

Kakashi forced a chuckle. "I finished reading it. You're asking because you heard that it will be banned soon?"

"Father says it should be."

"Sir Chouza and I aren't really close." He smiled at me. "Ino, Lady Tsunade wants to see you. She said she'd bother Sir Inoichi if only he wasn't too old; as it is..."

"Tell that to his face!" I squeezed Kiba's hand and patted Akamaru's nose before I marched towards Kakashi. "He's too old to have a girlfriend!"

" _Ino_..." Kiba grumbled.

Kakashi put his hand above his eye. "Actually, your father is busy right now because he's covering for Sir Shikaku. They're sending out the route the bride's party will take. Since he's marrying within clan and this hasn't happened for quite some time, they'll have to revive some traditions."

"Oh, yeah!" Choji offered me the chips. "His fiancé's arriving! If Tazu Matsui's lurking here, they must've hired her to arrange the flowers for them."

"Tazu as in Inoichi's girlfriend?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes, the one and only." I looked over my shoulder – at TenTen. "We've never seen her deliver flowers here before, have we?"

 **Neji:**

I received it again today - the butterfly brooch Ayano stole from a store before and which I had bought for her after taking on her punishment. I uncovered the secret compartment beneath the floorboards of my room and dropped the brooch along with the rest. The first five times I received it, I had interrogated my household and our neighbours for any suspicious figure lurking within our grounds. Servants relayed that nobody went inside my room without my permission, and the house was relatively empty at daytime when everybody was out either training or doing missions.

Somebody who bore a grudge against me for the recent talk about succession must be playing this prank, reminding me that there were people within our clan making sure I'd never replace Hinata. Partnering me to Ayano had been their security, but her sudden death changed the game.

I stepped on the floorboard to conceal the compartment. How many times did I have to tell them myself that I had no plans of becoming their leader anymore? If they wouldn't believe those words out of my mouth, I wasn't sure what would persuade them.

I left my room and knelt outside my mother's study. The light from inside revealed a silhouette of her flipping through a book. I cleared my throat and asked if I may enter. Mother voiced her consent. She showed the book on her lap as soon as I was inside.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Your father wrote to me a lot whenever we would be away for a while." She smiled, the lines around her mouth revealing her age. They didn't use to be there before. I wondered if the stress of the recent talk of succession got to her too.

Sitting next to her, I spread the book before us and traced the words with my fingers. "It was smart of you to bind them and put a cover."

"I knew he wasn't going to live a long life." She smoothed the skirt of her kimono as she stood. "Men as dedicated as that to their clans die early."

I chuckled. "Are you discouraging me, mother?"

She put her hand on my head. "All I want for you is to be happy in what you do, may your days be short or long. I miss your father but I am satisfied to know he lived a purposeful existence. I do not have that same confidence in you yet, Neji."

I reached for her hand. "You think I'm unhappy?"

Mother left her study with a reminder that we would be dining with Lord Hiashi and Lady Hinata for supper. Once sure that she had gone, I pressed my forehead against my father's letters. I wish he were here to guide me.

 **Shikamaru:**

The dark clouds weren't there before. Only a few seconds ago, the sky had been perfect with the passing of plump, white clouds with tendrils that morphed them into various objects. They stimulated my imagination the way they did before – a taste of normalcy that I was grateful for.

The one right above me reflected a knife, then a scroll, then a house, then a leaf, and then a solid ring. I thought of a wedding ring. The next was not an object; it was a girl made of condensed water. She turned sideways, and on her body was a kimono that trailed behind her heels.

She drifted past me and then the thunderclouds arrived. They rolled like sand poured on a table – messy. Disorganized. Dominating.

Still, I lay on the ground, my body melting into the grooves of the earth and proposing oneness with it. This was often how I felt after exhausting myself in training. The slow motion of the world always managed to relax me enough to pitch me back to my senses.

The first of the many thunderstorm winds blew, drying the sweat on my skin and on my clothes.

Bed. Go home. Right. I better go home.

I sat. The ground shook. I clutched the grass and concentrated on the quaking. The force rippled on the soil from somewhere behind me. Earthquake? No. This great strength affected the surface of the ground and cracked it in a manner different from natural earthquakes.

If I were to speculate based on experience, this was an effect of pressure applied from above and not below. The dirt beneath my palms fell as I shook my hands in the air. Massive underground waves continued to surge inside the earth to where I sat.

I waited for another round of quaking. There weren't any. The world calmed. The grass danced again, happy that the horror was quite done now. Standing, I dusted my khakis and advanced northwards to where the epicentre must be situated.

Naruto's Rasengan was incapable of producing peace minutes after it blew up; it was so powerful that the dispersing chakra would oftentimes be choking.

Like second-hand smoking, I thought.

I walked past the trees, touching their trunks as I passed them and scanned the area ahead. At first there was nothing but level ground and taller grass. Shadows loomed from the thunderclouds. Light scattered in every direction where the darkness would have a harder time reaching them.

As I got closer I saw a curve of brown line on the middle of the clearing. It opened like a mouth and revealed a crater.

I tucked my hands in my pockets and stepped onto its lip. Curiosity dissolved from me. I drank in the situation the way mum taught me the proper way of drinking my tea in front of the Pillars; with my back straight and my thoughts clear and my heart calm. Dismiss the panic regardless of the people at stake in the crises. Find a solution.

Sakura sat on the centre of the earth, curled in a ball. She tightened her embrace around her legs, as though her body was attempting to fit into an invisible container.

I formulated a question: Sakura, what's wrong? Another question: Do you want me to be here for you?

My voice could not deliver these queries. Instead I gawked at the sight of her, as stupid as the Pillars believed I always were.

She tipped her head back and our eyes met. "There you are! Finally."

"You were searching for me?"

"I've been all over the village."

"Why?"

She pushed herself off the ground. The effort she exerted made me squint at her. Her paleness and sluggish movements alerted me that she was beyond exhausted. Was she ill? Nah, she had the strongest immune system next to Naruto. She must've simply forgotten to eat again.

My left foot scraped the ground when it moved backward. As I turned on my heel to retrieve my bag where my untouched lunch was, I felt a raindrop crash on my head. Another skidded past my cheek. Another one. Another one.

I returned to the lip of the crater and said, "Oi, it's raining. You'll be flooded in there and drown."

"You idiot." She raised her fist. "I was so frustrated and anxious that I punched this crater into existence. Shikamaru Nara, you didn't take you medicines, did you?"

I sighed. I glanced up at the sky. She knew. She always could tell.

The white clouds had long been engulfed by the grey ones. Thunder roared. Lighting flashed a bright zigzag across the growing darkness. I jumped into the crater, keeping my knees bent and grazing my fingers on its wall to guide my descent.

"I needed to keep myself sharp. I'm sorry." I put my hand over her head in a petty attempt to shield her from the drizzle. "Let's go. We'll get sick here."

Sakura embraced herself. "Give me a moment. I feel faint."

In the midst of the foul odour steaming from the earth, I found her scent and inhaled it. Cherry blossoms. Freshly bloomed. It took all my self control not to wrap her in my arms. "Did you eat anything at all today?"

She bit her lower lip. "I don't think so."

"Let's get something to eat so you can recover and then I'll take my meds." Removing my jacket, I flung it over her head and ushered her out of the crater. Where our bare flesh touched, I felt the first pangs of regret at deciding to marry somebody else.

 **Ino:**

The Hokage didn't meet with me, exactly. Instead, she left instructions with the shinobi standing guard at the prison cell beneath the military base. I held the parchment against the torch, noting before I read the words that the prisoner must be of some threat if she was being kept here. The clay was mixed with jutsu-disabling seals, and the primitive lighting was supposed to act as a form of torture.

Kiba once joked that the guards here had a bat's senses, as they were trained to move around and combat in these conditions exactly. "These are also the best bunch of taijutsu masters you'll encounter, seeing as they can't use high-level ninjutsu in that place."

I screwed up my face at that thought. It went perfectly against what Lady Tsunade wanted me to do - extract information from the prisoner regarding her recent whereabouts. Well, Lady Tsunade, I couldn't do mind infiltration so easily in this place. Unless she wanted to use brute force.

Setting fire to the parchment, I let the ashes fall to the ground and I waved for the guard to let me in. The darkness startled me. I had visited this prison a handful of times, but I had never been in one of these cells.

The gloom was tangible, the silence near-maddening. It was as though the cell had a life of its own.

The woman in tattered kimono lay on the ground with her wrists and ankles bound. The message from the Hokage did not mention she was a shinobi. She definitely didn't look like one.

"I know you're awake," I said. "Sit up. We need to talk."

The woman dug her feet against the clay and fell twice before throwing herself upright to sit with succes. She blew her hair off her face to see me.

"What's your name?"

"...I don't know."

Of course. The Hokage only let me handle interrogations that involved some kind of amnesia, whether real or not. "Do you know why you're here?"

She had the decency to look remoresful. "I stabbed a shinobi. I thought...she was going to attack me so I stabbed her."

"That shinobi was a sentry at the village gate and what you did was a crime. Say, are you from a nearby town?"

"I'm a daughter of a farmer.'

"But you don't know your name?"

"I-I can't seem to...remember."

I stepped closer. There it was - chakra. She possessed the chakra pressure of an average chuunin. "Why did the daughter of a farmer think a female sentry from Konoha would attack her?"

She turned her face towards the dark. I sighed. There was more chance getting clear answers from a mad prisoner than a quiet one. She was smart enough to feign selective amnesia, but not to get her story straight in case of an interrogation.

I brought out a string from my thigh pocket and bound her wrists below the rope. She wriggled and screamed for me to stop, but I leapt back and knelt with the chakra already flowing from the string to muster some control over her. I made the hand formation and entered her mind.

 **Shikamaru:**

She hit the space beside the pantry cabinet and found the switch. It flicked upwards with a 'click'. Sakura stepped aside to let me pass through her front door.

I rubbed my arms as I entered, pretending I was too preoccupied with warming myself to inspect her apartment. I convinced myself that it wouldn't have been strange for me to be here regardless of the rebirth case's existence. Sakura and I were friends before. Acquaintances, if _friends_ was too personal a label. Besides, we were platonic now. Should Shikaku discover my whereabouts, we could lie that I apologized for disrespecting her as a medic and we were shaking hands about it when we got caught in the rain.

She closed the door behind me, kicked off her boots, and jogged to the room to our right. She yelled, "Lose your clothes!"

"What?"

"I'll hang them on the balcony to dry!"

I walked across her living room and pried the floor-length curtains apart to peek outside. The cement of her balcony had regained its grey hue, albeit there were still dark shades lingering where the wind had failed to carry the rainwater away.

Sakura's footsteps were light. She appeared next to me with a bundle of towels in her arms. I grabbed one and buried my face in it first.

She draped another over my shoulders. "Heater's dysfunctional. Sorry."

My nose itched. I sneezed. She doubled backwards.

"Sorry." Sniffing, I rubbed my neck dry and swallowed. "I can just go home and explain to them, you know. You don't have to fix me."

"At least go home in dry clothes." She squeezed the water out of her hair. "It's still part of my mission to make sure you're in good health. Besides, your father worries so much about you."

I scoffed. "The pillars would love for me to be in good health."

"Lose your clothes!"

"Why are you shouting?"

"You're just like Naruto – you can be difficult to instruct sometimes. If you don't get out of those clothes soon, you'll catch a cold and then a fever and it'll be my fault why you'll have to postpone your training or-or your engagement."

That sore topic, now dragged into a room where there was only two of us, instigated a silence that we never used to share before. We idled in our place, unsure of how to work our way around it.

"Fine. Calm down." I pressed my fingers against my palms to force the blood to circulate. When I could feel them again, I fumbled with the buttons of my jacket. I paused and found her staring at the buttons.

"Uhm...Sakura? You don't have to watch me undress. I have every intention of drying up."

She jerked awake. "I wasn't watching you."

"Then you were staring in mid-air."

Sakura waddled into her bedroom, leaving the door half shut.

I turned around to avoid seeing her naked and slipped off my jacket and my shirt. They fell to the floor, bleeding water to create a puddle. Scanning the apartment, I realized that the only bathroom must be in her bedroom.

I sighed and tiptoed fast behind the kitchen counter. There I pulled down my khakis with my boxers and fit myself into the navy sweatpants I had mistaken earlier for a shirt when I was packing my knapsack.

For the first time, I was glad I made a mistake.

Sakura sneezed. I tightened the lace of the sweatpants around my waste and returned to the farther side of the living room. She emerged from the bedroom wearing a purple sleeveless dress.

I pointed at the balcony. "I'll hang them."

"Sure." She mopped the floor. "Tea? Hot cocoa?"

"Whatever you think is best for me, Sakura."

Tracing the puddles back to the kitchen counter, she opened the fridge and said, "Beer?"

"You're being a bad influence on me."

"What will you have, then?"

"Hot cocoa."

"Two mugs of hot cocoa coming up."

I unlocked the glass sliding doors and entered the balcony. The wind slapped against my body. My teeth clattered. "It's cold out here!"

"Yeah? Is the wind strong enough?"

"It will do."

I found a clothesline overhead. Pinning my tunic and my khakis up, I extracted my boxers from the knapsack and hung it on the railing. I knotted the top right corner to the lower left corner to prevent it from flying away. The last thing I wanted was to flaunt my boxers on the balcony of a girl's apartment. Enough rumors had been spread about me.

I wrapped the towel around my shoulders as I joined Sakura inside. She sat behind the couch on the floor and suggested letting the wind in to dry us up. I brought out the lunch mum made and placed it between us. "We'll share this so you can regain your strength and I can take my meds."

Sakura's fingers hovered over the selection of fruits on the side. She settled for a strawberry. "Lady Tsunade said she can't find any abnormality in me, but I've been feeling something strange since our last meeting."

"...Perhaps psychological?"

She glowered at me. "I'd know if it were psychological, Shikamaru. It's not just the idea that we'll have to resolve the rebirth again. It's physical."

"Get enough rest, make sure to eat right, and spend some time out of the hospital. If it persists, have Lady Tsunade check you again."

"She'll just say what she did last time." Sakura lowered the strawberry to her lap. "That I'm heartbroken."

I wanted to hold her hand. Squeeze her fingers. Make her feel the chaos of emotions in my chest. "We're all doing what we think is right. Your opposition to my idea for us to stay together in spite of my clan situation doesn't mean you're wrong and I'm right. I'm beginning to think it's my judgment that was clouded. I really didn't want to end things between us even temporarily. Not even for the sake of the mission. There's always the lingering threat of being taken further apart the second we agree to stop."

"I'm sorry, Shikamaru," she said. "About using the Southern District to keep your father's attention away from me."

"I suppose it's the lesser evil compared to finding out we've been lying to him. Don't sweat it."

She lifted the mug of hot cocoa to her lips but wouldn't take a sip. "Do you think this is temporary, Shikamaru?"

"I can't tell. But if I can prevent the marriage, I would."

She giggled. "We've never talked about it, but now that we're not together anymore and you're engaged, there's no harm in broaching that topic for curiosity's sake."

"Broach what topic?"

"Us. Wedding bells. Family," she said. "Why did it never come up between us?"

I chewed on a rice ball to stall. It was true. Marriage was never a topic we discussed in the five months we were in an official relationship. "We were too busy planning our survival."

"Or did you, at the back of your mind, know that the politics involved wouldn't have made me a suitable candidate?"

I choked on the rice ball left in my mouth. Sakura patted my back. I gulped half of the cocoa and burst into laughter. "Sakura, don't make my clan sound as complicated as the Hyuuga or the Uchiha. We're only experiencing difficulties now because of my health condition. Under normal circumstances, any sane bride would do. And even then you won't be just any bride. You're the pride of Konoha, the apprentice of the Hokage, and one of the greatest medics to date. I can state several political advantages of making you my wife."

Sakura's face turned scarlet at the idea. She busied herself with the food and mumbled a feeble 'okay'.

"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Sakura," I said. "You tend to overthink."

"Do I?" She leaned against the back of the couch, her bare feet facing the balcony. "Ino and Neji told me so, too. I didn't want to believe them."

I finished my cocoa, the steam warming my cheeks. "You have to. It's true."

"You're supposed to be on my side, Shikamaru," I said. "Girlfriend or not. It's still us against the world."

I chuckled. She asked what was so funny.

"And here I was thinking it would be awkward between us," I said.

"You changed your mind." She folded her legs up and pressed her cheek against her knees as she looked at me. "You were avoiding me and now you're here."

I shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose we've been through too much together to let anything upset whatever relationship we have now."

"Were you planning on telling me yourself? About your engagement?"

"Sure."

"When?"

"…Once I've strategized the conversation."

"Wow, Shikamaru. I don't know what to say to that."

"It's a drag to have to admit you were right," I said. "I was being selfish at a time my family needed me to think of them first."

"If it makes you feel better, I received a scolding from Inoichi."

"Seriously, those old people. I told them to give us our privacy."

Sakura brushed her hair into a ponytail and lowered her voice to mimic Inoichi. "Don't make it difficult for him to stand by his decision, Sakura. You can't put down people like a toy and pick them up afterwards, Sakura."

"Ino has to go home to her father," I said. "Or else he'll start to mistake every girl for his daughter."

"He made sense though," she said. "I may have made the advantageous call, but I still owe you an apology. I really thought all I had to do was wait and once things sorted themselves out, we could be together again."

I sighed. "I wish things would play out that way. But once my fiancé arrives, I can't be seen with any woman like this."

"Is she stronger than I am?"

"I doubt it," I said. "We don't specialize on strength. Our forte is in outsmarting the enemy."

"I wonder if she can outsmart that limping idiot who kept pitching toothpicks at me during the final battle at the exams."

I dropped a slice of kiwi back into my lunchbox. "Toothpicks?"

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to call those metal sticks."

"Needles?"

"Do you think I'd pass for a medic if I couldn't tell a needle from an enhanced toothpick?"

"Is it poisoned?"

"It's a toothpick!" she said, folding her legs beneath her as she turned to face me. "The entire battle I was searching for a reflective surface to see whether I annoyed him with something stuck between my front teeth!"

I put down the mug and laughed. Tears spilled from the corners of my eyes. I waved my hand to signal that it wasn't her I was laughing at. She continued to frown at me. I swallowed and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "Have you considered the possibility that your strange antic made the judges think that you were high on some drug? We know the Hokage set this up but we weren't told how she made it possible"

She gasped. "It was part of the plan!"

"They planted an odd shinobi with odd skills to fight you in the final rounds and infect you with his oddness so the judges will find you odd."

"He switched our medical results!"

"He's really the one who used performance enhancing drugs because he wasn't sure he could hit you with toothpicks."

"Actually, I'm not sure if he's really a boy..."

"Then it's a girl who's jealous because you can do more than toss toothpicks."

"And she has terrible, terrible hair! Plus she'd do this face – " Sakura widened her eyes and curled her lip so that only her lower set of teeth were visible. " – and half the time I was wondering whether she was having stroke! Don't laugh, Shikamaru! I'm serious!"

I covered my mouth but I could not suppress it. She punched my arm and laughed, permitting me to express my amusement freely. Her cheeks blazed a bright red and her eyes welled. I embraced my abdomen. Its muscles there were beginning to ache.

Sakura ran a towel over her eyes and announced that she better inject me with my medicines now.

I managed to calm myself enough to eat another slice of kiwi. "Inject me? Won't the pills work anymore?"

"You'll need a higher dosage to make up for the lapsed time between intakes." She brought out a bag with all the emergency medical paraphernalia she needed. "I prepared a kit in case you did something stupid like this."

I offered my left arm and curled my fingers into a fist. "How can my future wife ever compare?"

Sakura grinned. She filled the vial with a reddish liquid and swiped the inside of my elbow with a cotton ball soaked with disinfectant alcohol. "It'll be a sorry marriage, Shikamaru. I've cursed it since I found out."

I was about to retort when an incoming presence made the hairs on my arms rise. Sakura slid across the floor and kicked the door to the balcony shut. With a deft move, I carried her against me and leapt away from the balcony where a man had landed.

The glass shattered and Naruto skidded into a halt across the apartment. "How dare you touch Sakura you - !"

I kept my kunai raised until my brain registered the situation. Naruto had done this before – barged into somebody else's home for Sakura's sake. If he looked more like Sasuke, I wouldn't have a chance with Sakura at all. Thank goodness for those whiskers.

Sakura buried her nails on my skin to catch my attention. She mouthed for me to let her go. It dawned on me that her arms were tied around my neck and her chest pressed against my bare one. Her dress had hiked high above her knees, and if my leg hadn't been bent over it, Naruto would have had an eyeful.

I dropped her in an instant and raised my hands in the air. "It's not what you think, Naruto."

"Hey!" Sakura rubbed her backside. "That hurt!"

"Shika...maru?" Naruto gave me a once over. He turned to Sakura and gasped. "Sakura, what's that thing on your shoulder?"

She plucked out the syringe and lifted it to her face. The reddish solution had gone into her system. All of it. She stumbled towards her emergency kit, tripped on my bag, and collapsed. I dove forward but failed to catch her. Naruto carried her to the couch. "Hey, Sakura! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She hiccupped. "Naruto...what are you...here?"

He scanned the apartment and saw what he was looking for. He fetched a bouquet of flowers from the balcony. "I thought this would make you feel better so I decided to drop this off but then there's this naked dude - er, Shikamaru and I didn't recognize him at first!"

"We were caught in the rain and she was injecting me that medicine!" I rummaged her kit. "What can we do?"

"What do we do, Sakura?" Naruto asked.

I felt the back of her head. She winced and clutched my shoulder. "Ouch!"

"You might have a concussion." I slapped her cheek. "Hey! Don't fall asleep!"

Sakura groaned. "Shit. Drug."

"What?" Naruto turned to me for an explanation.

"That medicine does a number of things to my body, one of which is to increase the pace of my pathway's auto-reconstruction so my chakra wouldn't freeze and clog," I said. "With that injected to an undamaged pathway, it's bound to thicken the lining of her pathways and narrow her channels which would cramp her chakra and make her burn."

Naruto collapsed on the floor. He touched his head. "Whoa, that's too much information, Shikamaru."

Dressing in my freshly dried training clothes, I wrapped a blanket around her and carried her on my back, all the while attempting to strategize my way around this mess.

She snuggled against my neck. "Are you taking me to see my mom?"

"Unfortunately, no." I grabbed the keys on the countertop, switched off the lights, and locked her apartment. Naruto followed suit, all the while asking if Sakura would be alright. She breathed against my neck, making it difficult to focus on the task at hand. "Sakura, hey, wake up! Listen, you're an excellent medic so you have to understand what I'm about to explain in spite of your drugged state. Shit. This is my fault. Sakura! Hey, yeah, that's right, open your eyes. Listen. You have a concussion and you're drugged and you're falling asleep. I'll bring you to the hospital."

"No!" She wriggled on my back. "Please, no! Not there! N-not!"

Then I remembered Eiko and Nanami and the rest of the interns who made fun of her. This would not reflect nicely on her, too, especially with the charges filed by Suna. Adjusting her on my back, I cursed myself and said, "Okay. Shit. Naruto, get Shizune over to my house. I'm taking Sakura to my mother."


	9. Chapter 9

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Nine**

 **Shikamaru:**

I traveled through the alleys to get from one block to another. The puddles, the gloom, and the wind contested my determination to reach home. It didn't surprise me that even nature was questioning my sanity for wanting to risk my neck on Sakura's stead.

Then again, this was what I signed up for when I entered into a relationship with Sakura. The fleeting moments in the past months that we thought this could all work out without testing our resolve – that it would be easy, even – were the greatest evidence of our stupidity. Ours was a romance forged on life and death and now being reheated in the face of the lies we had to feed the people we loved. _Easy_ was a dream for us.

My steps slowed, and I allowed myself to feel the dead weight of her body against mine.

We had broken up, but I had never felt a more stable consciousness of love for her until now. I had accepted the engagement as a reaction to her refusal to fight for me, and she had brought up the Southern District to my father as a subtle means of revenge, I was sure. The strategic advantage of both moves was undeniable, but the fact remained that we hurt each other. After tonight, though, I found we could easily forgo our pettiness and hold each others' hands when needed. Our relationship felt like the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps, in our line of work where duty always came first, even getting to love one another was the most privilege we could get.

"Shikamaru?" she whispered in my ear.

I bent on my waist to push her further up my back. Her hands dangled over my shoulders. She breathed and her breath moistened my cheek. "What's up?" I said. "Don't fall asleep, okay?"

"Why are running away?"

"We're not running away, Sakura..."

"Moving." She coughed. "So faster."

I stepped sideways to avoid a heap of broken crates at the mouth of the alley. "Hey, let's talk about something interesting – anything to keep your brain working."

She lifted her chin from my shoulder. "You thinking my brain will stop working? _What_?"

"No, that's not what I meant. You know, something that will keep you talking so you won't fall asleep? I can't let you fall asleep, Sakura. Concussion, remember? It doesn't help that you're a bit high." I jogged to the nearest alley. Two more to go and we'd be crossing the street to my house. "Okay, what do we talk about?"

"I'm not a higher." She pressed her nose against my nape. I shivered and craned my neck. She drew circles on my skin with the tip of her nose.

"Sakura, stop that!"

"Tickles?" She giggled. "You smell nice. Is that sweat or cologne?"

I cleared my throat. "Cologne."

Moonlight barely touched the narrow road we were coursing and the brick walls on either side of it. We entered the main road of my district. Lampposts lined our path and vivified each estate. The cricket's sonnet filled the emptiness of the street and dulled the debate in my mind.

My stomach churned not out of hunger but out of fear. I felt a heart burn surfacing. I also felt the rising and falling of Sakura's chest against my back.

"There's our chieftain!"

I leapt back into the alley and whipped to the right.

Uncle Toya raised his hand in greeting as he approached. He blew his bangs off the side of his face and smirked. "You've been up to something nasty, huh? At least she's cute. Although, if I can have my pick for you, I'd say you go with the blonde girl."

"It's not what it seems."

Sakura sneezed. "I think I have a concussion, Shikamaru."

"You do." I nodded at Uncle Toya. "She does."

"And you're taking her home with you? She's not suffering from a concussion and child-bearing, is she?"

Sakura gasped. "I'm pregnant?"

"Nobody's pregnant! Uncle, can you please be sympathetic and help me? I can explain when we're home. Right now priority is to get her treated. Please?"

"My mother will butcher me." Sakura buried her face in my hair. "Shikamaru, drown me in river. I can't be having child in tummy now."

Uncle Toya laughed aloud. "Alright, lad! Your house is this way!"

Of course, mum's reaction had no hint of amusement like her brother's had. She turned around the second I set foot in her kitchen - a litany of complaints impatient to roll off her tongue - but was restrained by shock at the sight of a barely conscious girl on my back.

Uncle Toya merely waltzed to the refrigerator for a bottle of beer and raised it in the air. "Would your cute friend like some, our sweetest Shikamaru?"

Mum wiped her forehead with her sleeve and took a deep breath. Scowling at me, she lowered the tongs into the sink.

Her famous scowl was the first sign of an erupting temper – a temper that always resulted in my pain and nobody else's. Before she could release lava in the kitchen's atmosphere, I blurted, "She was supposed to inject me with the medicines I missed when Naruto startled us and she injected herself instead and I have a very good reason for not taking her to the hospital and for goodness sake, mum, you know as well as I do that she's not pregnant because that's something Uncle Toya would do and not me and I have high respect for you and dad so can we please resist all melodramatic urges and focus on treating Sakura Haruno?"

Mum blinked once, twice, and sucked in a lungful of air. "Shikaku!"

"She has a concussion!"

"Sit her on your chair." She undid the laces of her apron and shooed Uncle Toya from the refrigerator. "Start explaining like a real man once your father is in here."

I settled Sakura on my chair and pressed her shoulder against the backrest to keep her sitting straight. She gripped my hand. Mum produced a cold compress and asked Sakura whether she felt the area in her head where she hurt the most.

"It's here." I pointed at the lower back of her head. Mum warned Sakura that the cold would shock her. I watched as the bag of ice touched her hair and traced the curve of her head. Sakura gasped and clutched my sleeve.

Mum replaced her hand on the cold compress with mine. "Shikaku!"

"I'm here." Dad stepped into the kitchen, rotating his shoulders and cursing his joints. His upcoming complaints about mum's yelling died the second he laid eyes on Sakura. He squinted at the cold compress. "What's wrong with her?"

Uncle Toya and I shared a glance.

"That's a surprise," he said. "I seriously thought he'd chase you, Shikamaru."

"Ah, uhm, c-concussion." I swallowed. I hit my chest to bring out my voice. "She accidentally injected herself with drugs intended for me and she collapsed. I missed my meds and she searched all over the village to get me treated."

"You missed your medicines," Shikaku repeated, as though it was no surprise to him. "Why didn't you bring her to the hospital?"

"It'll look bad if there's any record of her getting high on any drug."

"Shikamaru," Sakura hissed, scowling at her toes. "Your voice changed. And why have scars? Oh no! Did I hurt you?"

Dad grabbed her arms and straightened them, feeling for her pathways the way he did with me when I was a boy. "She won't be conscious for long. It'll begin to hurt soon. Her skin's already beginning to burn."

"I told Naruto to bring Shizune here," I said. "Look, dad, we made up for that fight we had that I'm sure you know about and she was doing her job as a medic and the rest is a very sad history that does not involve anything inappropriate. Stop grinning at me, uncle. It's not funny."

Mum brought out another cold compress and put it over her head. "Did the servants see her?"

"I scared them off our path," said uncle.

"Why are they here today, mum? Can't they start cleaning tomorrow?"

"The house is a mess." She sighed. "I'm tired and I needed their help."

"Ma, is that you?" Sakura clutched mum's skirt.

Mum cocked her eyebrow at me. She let Sakura embrace her waist. "Where are your parents, Sakura?"

Dad snatched uncle's bottle of beer and downed the rest of its contents. "They're in the company of the feudal lord. Lady Tsunade extended their stay there because the feudal lord found them extremely trustworthy."

"Hey." I poked Sakura's cheek. "Don't sleep."

She snapped her teeth at me, barely missing my forefinger.

Mum chuckled. "Yutsuki does that."

"Toya taught Yutsuki to do that," chirped dad.

Uncle rummaged the refrigerator for another bottle of beer. "I hate staying here for long. Shikaku's brain finds me an easy target when there's no puzzle to entertain his genius."

"You don't come close to attracting my genius, Toya."

"Shikaku, stop bullying my brother. He's helping us."

"But he teaches Yutsuki to draw on the walls of my study!"

"Toya, stop bullying my husband. This is his house." Mum picked up her sandals and pitched it at dad when he joined uncle in searching for beer. "Nobody will drink before dinner! I don't need drunken asses roaming this estate tomorrow when I've made such grand preparations for the meeting!"

"Yes, darling." Dad slogged to the pantry cabinet for a bag of raisins instead.

I took Sakura's wrists and unfolded them from around my mother's waist. Her head fell back and the cold compress crashed on the floor. Lifting her from the chair, I announced that I was putting her in a tub of cold water to ease her incoming fever. "After all, you, adults, are disappointing. I come in here seeking your assistance in handling my injured friend and what you do is bicker and search for intoxicating drinks. To make it up for your insufficiencies this evening, I expect no scolding for bringing a girl here."

Mum, dad, and Uncle Toya dawdled in their places, shooting glares at one another while the silence reigned. Uncle mumbled 'disappointing' to mum and dad. Yutsuki laughed from the adjacent room.

At last, dad raised his hands in surrender. "Shikamaru's right. We should set aside Shikamaru's punishment until Sakura's stable."

"Punishment?" I shrieked. " _What_?"

"You missed your medicines, Shikamaru." Dad collected the mortar and pestle. "I'll make an herbal concoction to combat the over-exertion in her pathways."

"Let's go, Shikamaru." Mum patted my shoulder as she walked past me and led the way to the bathroom.

Mum switched the light on. Sakura buried her face in my chest to shield her eyes from the light. Mum pushed aside the shower curtain and pointed at the tub. "Set her down and get the water running. I'll fetch a kimono she can borrow."

"She'll be okay, right?" I placed one leg inside the tub and lowered her body there, careful with her head. Sitting on the tub's rim, I glanced at mum and said, "I'm sorry. For all the trouble I cause. I'm not trying to screw up my engagement by bringing her here. She's a friend. She's alone and she looked out for my health in spite of what I did to her."

Mum handed me the towels. She kissed the crown of my head. "I understand, sweetheart."

"You're not mad?"

She cupped my face. "Shikamaru, you have to understand that it's my job to worry. It's your father's job to be angry. Don't hold it against us. Parents see things that their children don't. I'll be back in a jiffy."

I leaned down to insert the towel between her head the edge of the tub. The water rose at a steady level, and I held her hand as the cold began to nip at her burning skin. I would've worried for my own health if only I felt worse at having not taking my meds until this late hour. But no, I actually had not felt this good in several weeks. I took it as a good sign. This could be the start of my recovery, and I wouldn't need to marry someone that wasn't Sakura.

 **Shikaku:**

I twisted the cap on the jar until it was sealed tight. The torn Harini leaves inside it rustled as I slipped the jar to the back of the shelf. A bigger jar of spices inched forward, threatening to leap off the edge. I transferred it to the lower shelf where there were more space to accommodate it.

"Shikaku?"

"I'm here."

Yoshino kicked aside a box of broken jars, undoubtedly adding it to her mental list of things to dispose in the morning, and manoeuvred past the other boxes to reach me. I paused from crushing the petals of a primrose upon feeling her hand on my elbow.

"Shikamaru didn't shy away from Naruto as a kid," I said. "I'm not alarmed that he's going through such measures to help a friend like Sakura."

"You're not alarmed? Since when did you start lying to me about these things?"

"Okay, I'm slightly alarmed. But Inoichi erased their memories. They don't remember. It's just an awkward twist of fate. Besides, Sakura has gone through a lot of trouble keeping our son's health in check. This wouldn't have happened if Shikamaru only took his medicines as he was told."

"I'm not saying I don't like Sakura Haruno. I was looking forward to meeting the girl my son so willingly risked his life for." She folded the kimono and the obi in her arms and embraced them. "She's a lovely girl and a great medic"

"Lower your voice, Yoshino."

"You went too far by hindering her promotion. Tsk."

"The Fifth will go further in maintaining Shikamaru and Sakura's safety." I grabbed the wooden rod and used it to beat the herbs. "While that agenda persists, we have to make sure this is the first and last time they do something like this."

Yoshino kissed my shoulder and smiled at me. "This was certainly unexpected."

I beat the herbs faster. The herbs morphed into a heap of maroon dust. "Neji will be arriving in a couple of minutes."

Yoshino rubbed the length of my arm and nodded. "It's been such a long time since I've been on a mission. How refreshing."

Neji arrived at our house later with the supposed intention of returning a set of documents to me and relaying a message from Lord Hiashi. Yoshino spared me from Shikamaru's suspicions by telling Neji that Sakura was recuperating in our guest room with Shizune's help.

Naruto came stumbling across our front lawn. He waved his hands as he ran to us, asking if Sakura was fine. Shikamaru hissed for him to lower his voice and assured both men that she was being treated.

The dread that dawned on Neji's face was not something I had expected. He knew that I summoned him here because of Sakura. He knew I summoned him here to handle her. Still, it did not prevent his fright from surfacing when he witnessed her vomiting in the toilet bowl.

Shizune assured us this was the safest way to get the remainder of the drug out of her system. The rest, they'd have to let her body handle on its own.

He dropped his knapsack on the floor and shooed Shikamaru from her side. Shikamaru, sensing his authority, retreated without question and joined Naruto in the corridor.

Neji wiped Sakura's mouth and carried her back to the guest room.

"If you don't mind my staying here, I would be truly grateful," he told us. "Sakura is currently under my watch. I can't expect to counter Suna's charges if I don't make sure she recovers from this."

Yutsuki waddled into the guest room and rested her head on Sakura's leg. Yoshino carried our baby off the sleeping damsel. "You're a life-saver, Neji. We're busy with the preparations, you see."

Naruto scratched his cheek and grinned at us. "Maybe I can stay overnight, too?"

Shizune and Shikamaru gave him a firm 'no', with the former adding that he would leave when she did. Yoshino gave a nervous laugh and said any friend of Shikamaru's was welcome to stay, but she'd prefer if it were another time. Neji reminded Naruto that we had important guests the following morning.

I cut short Naruto's stream of questions by saying, "Sakura has to finish a cup of that herbal tea every time you wake her up."

"She'll not get in the way anymore." Neji rolled Sakura to her side and pressed the cold compress against the bump on the back of her head. Sakura mumbled Shikamaru's name.

Neji scratched his neck. "Go to sleep, Sakura."

"Shikamaru," she groaned. "Meds."

Shizune produced a vial and filled the injection with it. "That's right, I almost forgot. Shikamaru, I need to give you shots."

Shikamaru sat next to her and rolled up his sleeve. "Not that I don't want to, but I think you have to know that this is the longest I've been without meds and I'm still functioning well."

I studied my son. True enough, he looked healthier than he had ever been since he started his treatment. "How long since your last intake?"

"Forty hours," he said.

"That's noted," I said. "Shizune, give him a shot. We can't have him recoiling tomorrow in front of the Pillars."

"Yes, and then let's leave Sakura to rest." Yoshino turned around and motioned for the rest of us to follow.

Shikamaru pressed a cotton ball over the inside of his elbow and told Neji to wake him in case anything came up with Sakura.

While on my bed later that night, staring at the ceiling, Yoshino whispered a question to me: was it possible for Shikamaru's heart to recognize Sakura even if the brain couldn't? Their ventures during the rebirth case had not been a simple case of boy liked girl and girl liked boy the same. It was a case of boy and girl sacrificing their lives for one another.

"The heart can't possibly forego something so strong," said Yoshino. "My son is kind, but there's something about the way he looks at her."

So I began to wonder.

In the morning, Sakura was still reeling from her fever. Lady Tsunade had arrived to diagnose her and announced that she was taking twice as long to burn off that certain amount of drug. Shizune ordered Neji to put Sakura on a tub which they later filled with ice.

Shikamaru, after having dressed for the meeting with the Pillars, sat on a stool beside the tub to watch over Sakura. I overheard him discussing with Neji the details of Sakura's promotion and the amount of time it would take to overturn Suna's judgement given the right evidences.

The Pillars arrived to find the Hokage herself presiding over the meeting. She had decided to intervene since she was already in our house. We signed the documents requesting the bride's entourage to start marching for the engagement ceremony, and with sour faces the Pillars relented without much whining.

Yoshino, Shikamaru, the Hokage, and I remained seated in silence long after the Pillars had left. This time, they had the decency to exit backwards in respect for my son. As Lady Tsunade was about to speak, Shikamaru excused himself and headed for the bathroom were Sakura was recovering.

Lady Tsunade finished her tea and leaned back on her hands. "Shikamaru must be drowning in his guilt. Sakura did a good job keeping quiet about his condition and looking out for him even after he requested for a transfer."

Yoshino poured her another cup. "Is she like that with all her patients?"

"Yes, unfortunately," she said. "Even to patients she doesn't like much."

"Should we be worried, Lady tsunade?" I pushed a plate of namagashi towards her.

Lady Tsunade smiled. "We can't control emotions. But we can trust Shikamaru's word. I believe he loves the two of you too much to let any infatuation towards any woman get in the way of his duty to the Nara clan. And Sakura? You're just surprised there's still such a pure-hearted medic left in this world we live in. I'd be the first to react if anything she shows towards Shikamaru is beyond normal. This - her devotion and care - it's what all her patients get from her."

"It's comforting to know my son gambled his life on a worthy woman," Yoshino said. "I hope Shikamaru never discovers we've robbed him of an otherwise happy future with Sakura Haruno."

Lady Tsunade stood. "If all goes well in a month's time, Shikamaru won't have to marry Yei Hano, will he?"

This is what I appreciated most about the Hokage. Although not a mother herself, she gave one the respect she was due. I wondered if all my strategizing had sucked the father out of me and I had deprived Shikamaru of what he wanted, of what he could have had I been smarter, faster, and stronger.

So when Neji suggested to transfer Sakura to her own apartment as he and Shizune would have no trouble caring for her from there, I let Yoshino object and insist Sakura remained until she was well. She did this for Shikamaru, who voiced none of his concerns or objections because the Hokage was correct - he valued his family more than he would any woman.

I let myself relax for once. What was the harm? Shikamaru was engaged, their memories were erased, and Sakura pursued Shikamaru's wellbeing out of the goodness of her heart. I would never forget she honored my request for her to stay away from Shikamaru even if it broke her heart. I would not tell even Yoshino, but had Shikamaru fallen for Sakura under normal circumstances, I would have given them my blessing without a second thought.

While in my house I was a father, work chose no time and place to set itself as my priority. And work meant I couldn't ignore why Sakura's recovery took twice as long as it should given the calculated dose she received.

I pulled Neji aside before lunchtime and asked him, mainly because I was anxious to bring it up with the Hokage herself, if there was no truth to Sakura using performance enhancement drugs.

Neji had raised his eyebrows to express his surprise and waited for me to explain.

"I understand we had an agreement with Suna that they would fail her, but I'm curious if there's no basis to the method they chose," I said. "Her recovery shouldn't take this long and make her this sick."

He nodded. "I'll consult the Hokage on your behalf. It's impossible for us to reach this conclusion without an expert medic doing the same."

Shizune and Yoshino washed and dressed Sakura once her fever subsided. Shikamaru and I worked in silence in our library, studying and addressing traditional concerns for his upcoming marriage. Our minds, as was apparent, were on Sakura, and I allowed myself the leisure of finishing a pipe of cigar before asking him if he was aware of Sakura being in any medication.

Shikamaru only glimpsed me before unsealing a scroll. "I'm thinking the same thing."

"You're not aware of any?"

"If neither the Hokage nor Shizune mentioned anything, who am I to give my opinion? We only started talking again yesterday and then this happened."

"I see."

"Worried for her?" he asked.

"I am indebted to everybody who is helping or has helped you in any way," I said. "And Neji is concerned that he can't defend her pending promotion if the findings on her medical examination are actually true."

Shikamaru did not comment. He rolled the scroll and moved to the next one.

"What is your opinion on the matter?"

"I barely know her enough to predict what she can and cannot do," he said. "But if I were to judge from our experiences and what I've seen and heard, she's not the type to be drug dependent. For anything."

I believed the same thing, but for all our sakes I hoped she had been injecting herself some kind of drug indeed because the only other explanation would put the two of them in more danger than I could handle.


	10. Chapter 10

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Ten**

 **Kiba:**

I could still be in bed cuddling with Ino. She would go on and on about her belated realization of the impact Sakura's work in the hospital left her, but at least I got to press my nose against the smooth skin of her warm, bare back.

Breathing out to my freezing fingers, I scanned the area and couldn't help myself but frown deeper. Instead here I was, on the outskirts of Konoha in the freezing dawn, waiting for Hinata to arrive.

Shino stepped closer to me with an inquiry as to Hinata's tardiness, but I knew he just wanted to get close for warmth. Akamaru, sensing this as well, stretched on the ground to cover mine and Shino's exposed toes.

I sneezed, bending forward with the force. When I raised my head, Hinata had surfaced from the cluster of trees and was jogging towards us. Unlike Shino and I, she was smart enough to wear gloves and closed shoes.

"I'm sorry!" She bowed twice. "Something came up with my clan and I was worried for Neji so I waited for him but he hasn't returned yet."

"Neji?" I asked. "What's up with him?"

She blushed and shook her head thrice, the swaying of her hair exaggerating the effect of the action. "N-nothing! Nothing serious. You don't know Ayano Hyuuga anyway."

Shino sneezed. He rubbed his nose. "I've seen her in the hospital before, but I haven't encountered her recently."

"Anyway…" Hinata turned towards the estate ahead of us. "Why do you think they keep on having us monitor this place? It bugs me when a part of the mission file is stamped as confidential. I can't stop guessing."

Shino stretched both hands and released his insects. The first step was always to get a general feel of the place and detect danger should there be any. I shuffled my feet in impatience, knowing based on experience that the estate's sheer size made the initial scrutiny through the insects last for a good five minutes.

"Who knows?" I said. "Maybe they categorized it as such because they didn't want to appear like a pushover. From what I heard, the owner won't stop nagging. It's kinda embarrassing for the Hokage to admit that something so petty has her sending an elite squad like us to monitor this stinking place."

"Wouldn't you be nagging if it were Ino who blew up in your house?" Shino asked.

I grabbed him by the collar. "Hey! Don't say things like that."

Hinata inserted herself between us. "Shino, that's mean. But he has a point, Kiba. The owner's not just nagging because of the place. His wife and daughter died here."

"An investigation was already made and it was his fault they blew up," I said. "The man's trying to put the blame on someone apart from himself."

The insects returned to Shino. He pushed his sunglasses further up his nosebridge and led the way to the estate. Hinata activated her byakugan.

Akamaru and I smelled everything. From the strong scent of the flowers in the garden to the most miniscule trace of potassium chlorate in the wood. I took a cautious step into the hallway, I felt a chill run through my spine at the remembrance that the Hokage only nodded when I made that report. If the owner was correct and he was innocent of any fault in his family's death, then whoever did this could not be underestimated.

Potassium chlorate was the after-scent released by anybody who was smart enough to cover up his chakra signature when performing a large-scale attack such as an explosion of a house this big. I didn't see the use of it when I received orders from the Hokage to train under Kakashi in differentiating the scent of ninjutsu from chemicals, but as shinobis became more creative in their crimes, this skill was becoming more and more an advantage for Akamaru and me.

I sidestepped to avoid the wood dangling from the roof. Akamaru trotted ahead. Past a long corridor submerged in gloom was an open space punctuated by a crater. The remains of what used to be the roof, the floor, and the walls were either obliterated or shoved towards the remainder of the house like a pile of wreck washed ashore.

Hinata circled the crater. Shino crouched beside it and sent one insect into the hole in the ground. This was supposed to be the basement where the father kept a collection of explosive tags.

"Anybody been here recently?" Shino asked me.

"Nope," I said. "No one and nothing new here."

"What's that you've got there?" Hinata knelt on one knee.

I turned to where she was looking and saw Akamaru emerge from the adjacent corridor with an antler in his mouth. I stood beside Hinata and reached down to take it from him. "Deer antler, huh?"

 **Nohara:**

I pulled my chair next to the window and sat there with my cup of tea. I had hardly slept since returning from my mission. The steady flow of work as ANBU and the persistent need to find new leads in the rebirth case kept my mind preoccupied in the ungodly hours I couldn't slip a wink. It was also during one of those nights, while the world around me lay in silence, that I examined Anko Mitarashi's apartment – this very place the Hokage had rented out for me – and I found something useful at last.

The crevice on the window's side casing had been so carefully made that I had to pass my fingers across the surface several times before I confirmed it was unlike the deformities of the rest of the wood. Peeling off layers at a time, I fished out a worn paper bound by a string. I unrolled it and saw a drawing of a rectangle with two squares sitting on either ends of it. It had only been about three seconds since I set eyes on the sketch when the paper caught fire.

In the gloom of the apartment, the tiny blaze had appeared like a bursting star. I let go of it and the breeze from outside scattered the ashes across the floor.

Anko had left a message, and I wondered whether or not this was for Lady Tsunade's team or Orochimaru.

Finishing my cup of tea, I dressed in my ANBU attire complete with the mask and ventured north of the village. Something about the thought of delivering Kakashi this lead made me slow down.

Anko and him had been an item, and the necessity of her death must only worsen his sinking feeling that everybody he loved were destined to die before his very eyes.

Letting him into my life as my only confidante allowed him a chance to redeem himself, I knew, and if he found comfort in that, I would gladly indulge him.

His silhouette on the tree branch made ma swallow hard.

The only thing holding me back was the erratic beating of my heart as I closed the gap between him and me. My affections for him had fluctuated drastically from my childhood up to the time we were assigned to the rebirth case. What platonic feelings for him that I had schooled were quickly slipping into something more – something I wished it could avoid falling into altogether.

And it was more than his touch.

I was no longer a silly girl wanting to hold hands with the village prodigy. Kakashi and I had both been through enough in our respective pursuits to know that physical pleasures couldn't compare to comfortable silences and knowing glances.

I wanted him to be happy. Whatever happiness there was available for shinobis like us, I wanted it for him. If the prerequisite to that opportunity depended on solving the rebirth case and, as a by-product, casting behind him the loss of Anko Mitarashi, I would stay by his side through it all.

I landed on the tip of the branch he was reclined on. The leaves barely swayed at my arrival. The question that lingered in my resolve was how I could possibly do that without falling in love with this man all over again.

I took three steps towards him and sat. "Somehow, it worries me that you're not late," I said.

"It must interesting news if you were up late at night to send me a message." He pocketed his Icha-Icha book and sat up. "Did something happen?"

"Anko left something."

"Oh?"

"In her apartment. Hidden within the window frame." I produced a paper with the copy of the shapes as I'd seen them before it lit up. "There was an invisible seal that caused it to burn seconds after it was opened. Does this happen to be familiar to you?"

He scowled at the paper. "She's never used shapes for code before."

"Not with you, maybe." The words came out before I had the mind to stop them, and I shook my head. "I didn't mean it that way. There's no evidence that she's been spying for Orochimaru before the rebirth case started."

"There's no evidence to the contrary, either." He slipped the paper into the front pocket of his flak jacket. "I'll get this sorted in Intelligence where I can hopefully find reference for this style. In the meantime, you might want to keep an eye out for Sakura. Shikamaru brought her to his house yesterday to be treated. She accidentally injected herself with his medicine, according to Lady Tsunade. Neji is there, but we'll be needing additional security since they're all under one roof at the moment."

I pulled at his pant leg to see better the reddish marks on the black cloth. "You watched over them from the roof across their house, didn't you?"

"It was chilly but pleasant enough for a quick doze come dawn."

"Get proper sleep when you have the time. Exhaustion shows in your face worse now that you're getting old." I rolled my eyes. "But of course, why would you care? I'm the only one who gets to see your face lately."

"If you weren't wearing that mask, you wouldn't be so confident in accusing me of looking worn," he said.

"This is the only silver lining in my job."

Kakashi laughed. "Well, I suppose not seeing your 'I-told-you-so' look makes it less difficult for me to admit that my joints are killing me."

I brought out a round, metal container from one of my pockets and handed it to him. "Apply this every hour. It will help."

He placed one hand above mine and the other beneath the container. In a solemn voice, he said he owed his life to me, and then vanished in a veil of white smoke.

 **Sakura:**

I woke up knowing something was not right. I had been half-awake during my entire ordeal, and the conscious part of me did the math. While I could no longer feel the sting beneath my skin, I was fatigued from fighting the overflow of chakra in my channels. For a medic of my calibre, my recovery time should've been at least a quarter less of the normal rate. But no, I had taken as long as though I'd shot myself the drug twice and my body had never before coped with any strong dosage.

I pushed myself up to sit. The kimono lent to me by Mrs. Nara hugged my body as though it had always been mine. Touching my skin underneath the robe, I probed my channels through my chakra to check for damages. I had burned up and it should've torn some lining, but nothing seemed amiss.

"Does something hurt?"

I yelped and fell to my side.

Neji inched backwards. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you had at least sensed my presence."

I touched my chest and sighed in relief. Naruto would pay for this. The last thing I needed was to be drugged and later treated in my ex-boyfriend's house. "I'm still in a bit of a haze."

"You should lie down and rest some more."

"I'm stiff. I'd rather walk."

"Here. Let me help you." He took me by the shoulders and hefted me to my feet. The swiftness of the motion caught my strength unaware, and I hadn't regained feeling in my legs when he set me on my feet. Realizing this, he put his arm around my waist to keep me standing. I clutched his clothes, unused to this weakness, and told myself to calm down. I had not been incapacitated. I was only recovering.

"Deep breaths," he whispered. "You're going to be okay, Sakura. It's just the drug wearing off."

From the corner of my eye, I noticed shadows on the fish paper. I buried my face against Neji's chest to feign dizziness. This was enemy territory as far as I was concerned. Shikamaru, Shizune, and the Hokage must've done their part by veiling Shikamaru and me from Shikaku's watchful eyes, but there was no such thing as being too cautious when it came to war.

"Good, you're up." Shizune's footfalls were light on the tatami mat. "Faint, is she?"

"Give me a moment," I mumbled.

Neji brushed my hair away from my face and felt my forehead. "She's not feverish anymore."

The two of them exchanged their observations about the effects of the drug while I wished with all my might that somebody from the Nara family would walk in on me practically draping myself over Neji.

My mind had already gone as far as to note the texture of Neji's clothes and the scent of his laundry soap, and there was still no sign of anybody else approaching. Although I was dying for Shikaku to see me cling so to Neji, I couldn't stick to him like a leech forever in hopes of avoiding suspicion. I untangled myself from him, suppressing guilt at having to use him again to fool Shikaku, and arranged my hair. "I'm better now."

That wasn't a statement that would stay true for long.

Mrs. Nara demanded Neji and I stayed for dinner. Shizune excused herself to return to her hospital duties, and whatever I was about to say to escape this nightmare was never voiced.

Neji had that intimidating way, as he always had, of relaying his expectations without uttering a word or changing his expression. He made me understand without saying anything that regardless of the circumstances that brought me here, we were intruding and we had to be respectful to our hosts.

We sat abreast in the dining hall, waiting for the family of four to arrive. The servants, which I overheard were only present to help in the engagement ceremony, set the table and brought in dishes one by one. Neji sat still on the cushion throughout the wait, and Makato's accusation flooded me again.

I did not belong to their kind of clan to understand what this all meant to them.

A man's laughter woke me from my trance. He said something about the engagement feast before parting the sliding doors for them to enter. As Neji and I were about to stand, Shikaku motioned for us to stay seated. He introduced me properly to his wife, Yoshino, and to her brother, Toya, and to his little princess, Yutsuki.

The siblings made me promise to call them by their first names as though we were of the same age group, and Shikamaru begged them to please be normal in front of his peers. _Yoshino_ smiled at him the way only mothers could, relenting if only to keep him from getting stressed.

I tried to say something. Compliment the baby, apologize for my intrusion, thank them for their hospitality - but none of the right words came. It dawned on me that this dinner could have been my first meeting with them as Shikamaru's girlfriend. That he could be sitting next to instead of opposite me, and the engagement they were preparing for would be mine and his.

Neji squeezed my arm. "Sakura, did you hear me?"

I blinked twice and looked around. "Sorry, there was..."

"Maybe you should be resting some more." Yoshino made a move to stand. "Should I have the guest room prepared for you again?"

"No, please don't trouble yourself. I'm perfectly fine. I was just faint and distracted for a second."

Shikamaru topped his bowl of rice with grilled meat and said, "It's the effect of the drug. Keeps you too slow to think."

Shikaku glimpsed his son from the corner of his eye, refusing to comment. It had been a predicament he had shut off the first time Shikamaru brought it up, and it seemed they had yet to settle it between them.

Toya broke the settling awkwardness by forcing a laugh. "I should get you high on that drug sometimes, Shikaku. The world knows your brain needs to slow down sometimes."

Shikaku filled his cup with sake. "And the world knows your brain needs the exact opposite of that drug."

The conversation between family members gained a natural momentum from there onwards. Neji served me food first before helping himself, and I noted the frequency of his glances if only to make sure I wouldn't suffer from any unknown side-effect of the drug.

Toya, half-drunk already from drinking more than he was eating, teased Neji about the rumored prank we played on him while on the road from Suna. The casualness with which he, along with Shikaku and Yoshino, addressed him made me shoot a questioning look in Shikamaru's direction.

He had once mentioned that Shikaku was fond of Neji, but I didn't expect that fondness to extend to him being a familiar presence in his household. Shikamaru rolled his eyes, signaling me that this was something he considered too troublesome to explain.

"My pay for that assignment was used to reimburse all the damages the inns incurred." He tipped his head towards me. "Sakura, surprisingly, was responsible for seventy percent of those damages."

I dropped the fish back on the plate and gawked at him. "No way. There were dislocated doors and punctured walls but those are nothing compared to what Kiba did."

"Kiba broke down two doors and several ornaments while wrestling with Choji that one time," he said. "You, on the other hand, have no control over your strength. I had to follow you to keep on aligning windows and doors. That's not to account for when you threw a tantrum in the clinic."

I put down my chopsticks and turned towards him. "They wanted to put me to sleep while they stitched my wound. It wasn't practical. I could've healed it by myself."

"So you broke their machineries on purpose?"

"My fists landed on them by accident. They should've just let me handle myself."

"I wouldn't have handed you over to them if I knew they were only going to harm you, Sakura."

That shut me up. Yoshino and Toya sneered at us, and their resemblance then was undeniable. Shikaku, who had been preoccupied with feeding Yutsuki, handed her over to a maid to be put to bed and prevented the impending teasing by telling Neji that Lord Hiashi left him a note. He nearly forgot there was a Hyuuga messenger by the front door waiting for him.

Once Neji had excused himself, Yoshino refilled my cup with tea and said, "That was a sight. I've never seen him be that way towards anybody before. Let alone a girl."

"Yeah, Sakura." Shikamaru had stopped eating. He rested his hands near his hips and he looked at me with drooped eyes. "When did _that_ happen?"

Toya whistled. "Is that jealousy I smell?"

I wrinkled my nose, both alarmed and guilty at this confrontation. He couldn't be thinking straight if he planned to do this right here and now. "What are you talking about?"

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched. "Had I known you were together, I wouldn't have brought you here in the first place. For all I know, Neji's the jealous type."

"The Hyuugas are a possessive bunch," Shikaku said, mostly to me. "But decent enough. Although I have to admit I didn't think neither Neji nor you had time to date."

Yoshino swatted Shikaku's hand. "Don't go prying on a young lady's love life! I don't think it's something Neji would appreciate too."

Shikamaru chewed on his food thoughtfully. "Once news of your relationship gets out, no guy would want you to treat him in case Neji's watching."

I picked up on his ploy, but the hint of genuine annoyance in his intonation irked me. _Really, Shikamaru?_ I wasn't the one getting married so soon after breaking up. I straightened my back and leveled my chin. "There's no reason for Neji to ever be jealous of anyone. He knows I have eyes only for him."

The sliding door closed behind me. A shiver crawled up my spine at the waft of wind that blew in. Neji returned to his place by my side. I lowered my head and hoped my hair would hide my reddening face.

Neji announced that he had to leave. There were conundrums he had to address within the higher ranks of his clan. A long pause later, he shifted on the cushion to face me and cleared his throat. "I'll see you tomorrow and we'll discuss how your eyes shouldn't be on anywhere but your promotion right now. Is that clear?"

I nodded and held my breath until he left. If only there were nobody else in the room with us, I would've confronted him about his surliness. He must be partly convinced that Suna's charges about my taking enhancement drugs held a bit of truth if he was being this way.

Shikamaru faked a cough. Behind his fist against his mouth was the amusement of avenging his ego.

Toya clinked his cup against Shikamaru's. "Was I seeing things or was Neji really blushing?"

Shikaku smirked, but I noted the hint of worry in his expression. Whatever romantic affection I was faking towards Neji could be overcast by my supposed memory loss so there was no problem in that. His worry must be in the fact that I had involuntarily murdered Neji's fiancé over a year and a half ago, and there was no denying that he indeed cared for me.

The scream from upstairs wiped all amusement off our faces. Shikaku nearly overturned the table as he dashed out calling after Yutsuki. The rest of us followed suit with me on the tail, having only a general idea of where the cries were in this maze of a house.

I stumbled into the room next to Toya who, upon seeing the situation inside, exited and made sure the other servants would be kept out. Shikaku carried Yutsuki away from Yoshino, who begged him to please tell her what was happening.

Shikamaru called me over to the maid half-sprawled across the floor. Instinctively, I reached for her bruise-covered feet. The deep purple and green marks were receding, but the pain was causing the maid to call out for help. I reached around Shikamaru and pressed hard at her nape. Her entire body trembled, and then she lost consciousness.

"It's not a permanent trauma to her body," I said to Shikamaru. "She'll be fine. But what...?"

Yutsuki's cries drowned out all other sound in the house. Yoshino stood at a distance from her and her husband, her hands overlapped over her mouth to quiet her sobs.

I had taken only a step towards Shikaku when Shikamaru grabbed my wrist. "It's dangerous. Let dad handle her."

"Dangerous?" I flailed my free hand towards Yutsuki. "She's an infant!"

"She's a Nara," he said, tightening his grip on me. "And she's sick. We all knew her sensitivity to shadows was abnormal, but we never knew...how can it get this bad?"

I couldn't grasp what he meant. Never had he mentioned any such thing to me and no book in the hospital's library had specified a disease in their clan. "Mr. Shikaku, sir, if Yutsuki is in as deep a pain as I think she is, I have to do something."

"She won't open her eyes!" Shikaku turned to face us. "I can't put her in a genjutsu to distract her. Shikamaru, call Toya. Yoshino, you'll have to do it."

Toya entered the room and barred the sliding doors with a seal from the inside. I realized belatedly that no one could hear what was happening inside as he had put up a barrier that made the room sound-proof.

Yoshino bit her thumb and wrote the element of fire on the floor. Once she had backed away, Shikaku put Yutsuki at the center and stepped behind his wife. Toya nodded at Yoshino. They did a series of hand formations and flattened their hands on the ground.

Shikaku cautioned them to be careful as they wouldn't want to absorb too much of the heat in Yutsuki's body. Yoshino told him to shut up.

The written element of fire on the floor slipped beneath Yutsuki and formed a circle around her. Toya warned us that it was going to grow so we better get out of the way.

Shikamaru and I cleared the tabletop at the farther end of the room and transferred the maid there. He half-carried me to get behind him at the first sign of expanding heat. "That much?" he asked.

"What are they doing, Shikamaru?" I peered above his shoulder. Yutsuki's cries grew fainter by the second, but she was still too flushed for my peace of mind.

"Mom's clan specializes in the absorption of elements. Mom and uncle are manipulating the fire element to absorb, seal, and later release it," he said. "Since Yutsuki involuntarily tried to steal her nanny's shadow, she's feeling a rush of chakra her body isn't prepared for but her skills can handle."

It was just as Shikaku said during his check-up. Shadow-binding used shadows as instruments, but the manipulation was possible after the person was bound. The binder's chakra would overtake the victim's modulators that were located outside the channels, therefore enabling them to synch their chakras and control movement with ease. "But Yutsuki's not even supposed to be able to lengthen her shadow yet," I said.

"She didn't need to know shadow manipulation to do what she did," he said, forcing me to take another step back as he did. "The size, pattern, and number of modulators vary per person and change as a shinobi grows stronger. Her nanny isn't a practicing shinobi so in her basic twenty-four modulators, Yutsuki was strong enough to copy a quarter of her modulators and apply it to hers."

Yoshino summoned wind. Toya summoned water. At their command, the heat mingled with the other two elements to create steam equally spread throughout the room. I covered my nose and gagged at the density in the air. Shikamaru fanned the steam away from me. "Once dad says so, you have to check if Yutsuki is okay. The excessive chakra you suffered from last night is nearly the same thing she's going through. But we can't approach so simply because she might still be attracted to shadows."

Shikaku knelt beside Yutsuki and touched her forehead. He whipped his head in search of me. "Sakura!"

Shikamaru, who had been holding my wrist the entire time, let me go. I glimpsed him over my shoulder and saw his eyes fixed on his sister.

The weight of this incident crashed on me that moment. It took a moment too long but I realized it. While Shikamaru was explaining the situation to prep me for any necessary medical procedure, he must have been pushing aside any thought of her possible misfortune.

He'd always been so proud of how strong and capable Yutsuki was, and once he said as he was about to fall asleep next to me in an underground bunk that at least if things went downhill, his parents would still have her to look forward to.

I rushed to Yutsuki and hovered my hand over her body. Yoshino nearly collapsed next to me. "Please tell me my daughter's fine."

I pressed my trembling lips together and nodded. "She's alright."

Shikaku kissed the crown of Yutsuki's head and held Yoshino's hand.

I picked her up from the floor and wrapped her in the cloth that had been discarded early in the commotion. "But if I'm correct and none of you can predict the extent of it and when it will trigger, I'll have to arrange an appointment with the Hokage now."

Setting them up to meet with Lady Tsunade in the hospital past midnight was both easy and difficult. Yoshino strapped Yutsuki against her chest and hooked arms with me as we went to the hospital first. Shikaku and Shikamaru left their house ten minutes after we did, with Toya volunteering to oversee the household during their absence.

Yoshino walked with grace in spite of the urgency of the appointment. All her strength went into keeping up appearances, though, because I had to steer her in the right direction all the way to RB4A. As we crossed the bridge - the same one where Shikamaru and me were attacked by a possessed Sand shinobi - she patted my hand twice and thanked me.

I offered her a feeble smile. "You'll get through this. Everything's just happening all at once but it's nothing your family can't solve."

"Will you stay with us throughout the check-up?"

We stopped in front of the RB4A. I opened the door and stepped in first. "I plan to stick around to make sure Yutsuki's fine."

I had just finished reporting the situation and my medical analysis of Yutsuki when Shikaku and Shikamaru arrived. They greeted the Hokage and expressed their apologies for requesting her at this hour.

As Lady Tsunade inspected Yutsuki's body, Shikaku relayed all the information he had about her disorder. Apparently, it was something inherited in the chief's line. Inter-marriages with other clans was agreed upon in an attempt to saturate the Nara with foreign genes, therefore decreasing the chances of its reappearance.

"The reason shadow and light are such rare jutsus to manipulate is because it causes a corresponding reaction to the user," Lady Tsunade explained to me. "The modulators that enable our shell - the human body - to cope with the immense power of the chakra within us are tricky and exhausting things to manipulate. Shadow manipulation in itself is okay, but binding for complete control of another animate being takes its toll. Stealing, on the other hand " - tickling Yutsuki's belly so she shrieked in laughter - "means she'll mimic the modulators and her body would operate either with her original modulator pattern or with the copied modulators."

"No," I said, looking wide-eyed at Shikaku. "Her chakra would escape her. It's like breathing with five mouths. Her channels will deflate and she'll..."

Shikaku lowered her eyes to the recovery bed. "She can't control it. Her hyper-sensitivity to shadows makes it an obsession."

Shikamaru wrapped his arm around his mother. "My great grandfathers coped with it before. How did they do it?"

"All of us in our bloodline, Shikamaru, have this tendency towards stealing shadows if and when our power can handle it," he said. "Our choice to remain sane and serve the village meant foregoing whatever immense power our shadow jutsus hold. Yutsuki's case in itself is rare. The longest-living survivor of this disorder had all but one of her chakra channels blocked. It was the first step to prevent stealing shadows at a young age. When she was older..."

Yoshino covered her eyes with her hand. "When she was older she killed herself. The disorder affected her psych. She couldn't help her obsession."

Lady Tsunade turned Yutsuki on her side and listened to her heartbeat through a stethoscope. "Her case has never been studied or treated by a professional medic before. If we pursue a remedy, I can't guarantee we will succeed or that she won't end up being like that girl."

"Why?" I looked from Shikamaru to Shikaku. "Why does it sound like it was kept a secret? A life isn't something to be gambled."

Shikamaru went to Shikaku's side. "There's a jutsu to be found somewhere in her disorder, isn't it?" he told him. "If the wrong people find out and tweak the process of how she steals shadows and creates the correct hand-formations for the commands, others will know how to make living puppets." When Shikaku wouldn't confirm, he added, "Did you know about this?"

"Not for certain, but I understood the great likelihood of it materializing."

Shikamaru looked as though he would punch his father, but then he turned to Yoshino. "Mum?"

"We were taking measures towards controlling her sensitivity to shadows, but we did not expect her to be already so sick at this stage and age."

He fell on the edge of the bed, his back turned to me. His parents stood before him like criminals in question. "When were either of you planning to tell me? When I'm married and my position was secure?"

Shikaku brushed Yutsuki's cheek with his forefinger. "When we knew for certain what was happening to your sister. You could hardly take care of yourself, Shikamaru. I couldn't afford to burden you further with the uncertainties of her health. But what are you mad for? We were all caught by surprise tonight."

Shikaku's breathing grew faster. "Did you decide to make me marry within the clan for this purpose? Can this clan guard get you something from the inside that you couldn't risk getting by yourself?"

"I never expected this, Shikamaru. And I have not made plans for your sister yet." Shikaku craned his neck to look down at his son. "But now that we're here, you can be glad you agreed to this marriage. That might just be the course we'll have to take."

Shikamaru walked out on us.

I bowed my head and busied myself with the medical paraphernalia Lady Tsunade would need assistance with, but then Shikaku asked me to please pursue Shikamaru.

I looked up at him, not bothering to hide my confusion, and he explained that he was worried Shikamaru would go where he shouldn't go or do something reckless. "And just in case the stress takes its toll on his body."

Lady Tsunade nodded her permission, and I went after Shikamaru with all the energy I had been holding back since he left.


	11. Chapter 11

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven**

 **Kakashi:**

The entire day spent at Intelligence's library did not help in improving my mood. It started with the sudden need to keep watch of the Nara's estate overnight, during which I barely slept, and although the balm Nohara gave me alleviated the discomfort in my joints, the knowledge of Anko's hidden message gave rise to an ache where my heart was supposed to be.

Nohara made a good point. Just because Anko hadn't used that coding technique with me before didn't mean she hadn't used it at all. She could've left it for Orochimaru and we were lucky enough to stumble upon it.

I leaned on the railing of the deck overlooking the Southern District of Konoha. Bright lights and loud music filled the streets below, bringing cheer to this chunk of land enclosed against the forest outside. Anko and I used to eat take-outs here because while this district's reputation wasn't the best, its strip of restaurants did serve the best food. She'd gobble dumplings and grilled meat without pausing and only afterwards would our discussion start about how badly the first village architect designed our major infrastructures.

I closed my eyes in fear that I'd see here again where she wasn't. It had been happening too often that I was beginning to question my own sanity. The memories of her brought about by this place, however, and the conversations we'd had came rushing back, and there really was no way of keeping myself safe from them.

We understood that back then, efficiency went before aesthetic, but, as Anko put it, the damn architect could've prevented the village from looking like blocks of shapes put on top of the other.

My train of thoughts was cut off by the approaching presence from behind. I raised my hand to wave at Yamato the soonest I recognized his chakra. He stood beside me and breathed in. "Fresh air from this height." He sniffed. "And then some booze."

"Less noisy, too."

"There's nothing intriguing to report," he said. "Sai is being his usual self. He's returned from a retrieval mission with a shoulder injury due to an encounter with a group of bandits he came across, but there was nothing that hinted of Orochimaru or his henchmen following him or attempting to abduct him."

"He's at the hospital?"

"Lady Tsunade checked on him. There was still swelling on his shoulder so she recommended that he stayed overnight." Yamato paused from stretching his arms overhead and looked behind us. "Hello, Nohara. I almost didn't recognize you."

I glanced over my shoulder. She wore a white kimono sprinkled with purple floral designs and held together by a purple obi. Her braided hair draped over her shoulder as a finishing touch to the innocent visage she was aiming for. Had I not known her, I wouldn't even suspect that she could hold a knife properly.

She patted Yamato on the back with the force that made him cling to the railing to prevent from falling. "What a way to say that I look like every other woman in the village."

"That-that's not what I was trying to say!"

I poked his cheek while she kept on hitting him. "Then were you flirting with her, Yamato?"

"Stop it!" He ducked and chopped the air to get us to withdraw our hands. He rearranged his headgear and brushed his hair back. "You two can be really childish when together."

I laughed at his discomfort. "Before you run away from us, would you mind confirming which part of the village has the oldest infrastructures?"

He turned towards the view of Konoha, scanned the landscape, and pointed west. "Factories are the most difficult to renovate due to operations. The buildings themselves are still holding up well and are serving their purpose, hence the architects decided not to touch that area until they see a need to upgrade."

I straightened up to see the west side of the village better. Just as I thought – rectangles and squares put together in the boring combination Anko hated. She wasn't using code as she perhaps thought everybody would expect, enabling her then to mislead the people the message was not for.

But this message was for me, and she knew I'd figure out she was referring to a place. The rest of the message was in how she chose to deliver it. Paper and fire. Anko was, after all, a sucker for good storytelling, and I believed this was the last story she was ever going to tell me.

 **Shikaku:**

Yoshino locked the door. The remained holding the knob until the echo of Sakura's footfalls in the corridor faded..

Lady Tsunade removed the stethoscope from around her neck. "I don't know how to feel about this, but I'm pretty sure you were lying to Shikamaru." She grazed her thumb on the tattoo on Yutsuki's ankle. "You knew perfectly well that your daughter would come to this, although maybe not this soon. You were keeping track using this seal."

I kept my chin level, setting aside with practiced calm whatever pang I felt at being confronted like an accused. "Yes, milady."

"Did you at least tell Yoshino the true nature of this tattoo?"

"No," Yoshino said. "We've discussed the possibilities but he did not tell me he was already certain."

"And you're bringing in Yei Hano because the truth is you think Shikamaru attempted to steal Sakura's shadow during the rebirth ceremony, and understanding Yutsuki's case would lead to the solution," Lady Tsunade said.

The truth, now out in the open, released a bitter air in the room.

"I can solve two problems at once," I said in a low, steady voice. "Two problems involving the lives of my children. There was no other tactic I could resort to."

" _Our_ children, Shikaku." Yoshino reached out to stroke Yutsuki's leg. "They're _ours._ I only backed you up earlier so your son won't think the worst of you."

"He can think the worst of me and I'll still be his father."

"I'm your wife, Shikaku. Your relationship with our son matters to me. More importantly, I'm a shinobi too. Don't you ever forget that."

"Our family has fought enough in front of the Hokage," I said. "Whatever we have to discuss, it can wait until we're home."

"With all due respect, Lady Tsunade," Yoshino said. "But under no circumstances will I allow anybody - neither my husband nor you - to experiment on my daughter." She raised her hand palm-up to stop me from scolding her. "Under no circumstances will I permit an infant's disorder to be treated like an experiment for the benefit of the military and the medical field. But if you and my husband are correct and Shikamaru did attempt to steal Sakura Hurono's shadow during the rebirth ceremony, then whatever findings you make in the attempt to cure my daughter can be used to his advantage and to that of your team's."

Lady Tsunade only nodded once, knowing Yoshino was far from done with her speech.

My wife added, "I would also like to use this opportunity to point out that as far as I know in relation to elements, shadow stealing is a gradual process. Depending on what element a shinobi is gifted with, it would take time for the binder to rebuild the copy of the modulator pattern within himself for the summoning of the victim's shadow. That's part of the reason I was chosen to marry Shikaku - so Lord Michio could use our expertise to determine which elemental users are easier to bind and would be most advantageous to control. He had also bargained for some confidential knowledge in exchange of some of the Nara's, and based on that knowledge he was after, I can assume he wanted to study the use of elements as ornaments to complement shadow binding."

I reached up to trace the length of my scar – an old habit when stressed that I overcame when Shikamaru was born. The sudden turn of Yoshino's foot warned me that she took notice, and whatever anger for me that was simmering in her veins would be replaced by worry. I put my hands behind me to keep her from frowning.

"It was shadow-stealing," I said. "Uncle Shikame, who was supposed to inherit the title of chief, stole his wife's shadow so he could locate her at any time. Still, that wasn't enough to keep her safe from our grandfather. His wife was murdered, and although he made a career in the military, he had mad spells from refusing to relieve himself of her modulator pattern. When the victim of shadow-stealing dies, the binder must shed the copied pattern or else it would lose its function and create chaos in chakra distribution which we all know can damage a shinobi immensely."

"Yoshino," Lady Tsunade said in a thoughtful tone. "Did Shikamaru also learn about elemental control from you? Or did you entrust that task solely to the Academy?"

Yoshino exchanged a glance with me. "I tried to pique his interest but he thought it boring all throughout. I never tried again."

"I see." She smiled at us. "I wanted to know just in case you would be preoccupied or be elsewhere when Yutsuki needs help similar to the one you gave tonight."

The elements? I squinted at my wife's hands and tried to remember the commands she drew on scrolls and the seals she taught our son. The blood seal had elements on it but they were no special order or command that only my wife could've taught him. Was the Hokage making sure?

"Shikaku, would you mind if I send Yoshino and Yutsuki home first? I'll have Shizune walk with them and some ANBU keep an eye out."

Yoshino pressed Yutsuki against her chest. "Confidential matters?"

"If the sole knowledge of the rebirth didn't pose as much threat as it did, I would've sought your assistance long ago," she said. "But Shikamaru as target is already a handful. None of us want to endanger your family further."

Yoshino held her head high. "I see. Then I shall go."

"I'll see her out," I said.

Once we were in the corridor, I pulled Yoshino in an embrace, careful not to crush Yutsuki between us. I pressed her head against the crook of my neck and breathed in the scent of her. She gripped the side of my shirt and pulled away. "Shikaku, I know you're doing this to keep all of us safe. But you're also destroying _us_ \- _you_ and _me_. I've never meddled with your military affairs, but where it concerns my husband and my children, you've got to learn to trust me."

I leaned down to kiss her on the lips. She froze, because while we were concealed in the gloom of the night, this was the first time in our marriage that I had kissed her in public. I surprised even myself, truly, but this felt right. Where no words would suffice, I hoped this would convey my love for her in the midst of the storm of emotions I felt towards hurting them in the process of securing their safety. "You'll find Shizune in her office," I whispered, "I'll see you at home."

 **Sakura:**

I found him in the playground near the Academy. He sat on the slide with his temple pressed against the chain, and although at first I wanted to break his trance, I noticed his was not a meaningless gaze. I had seen that same gaze on him many nights when we would stay in the same underground bunk, and he'd often wake me up should he finally reach a satisfactory conclusion to his thoughts.

I went to the swing adjacent to his and balanced on the seat with my knees pulled up so I was facing him. I had no idea when he'd snap out of it. I let myself slip in and out of sleep while he was transfixed in his thoughts.

Morning light had streaked the gloom of the sky when he acknowledged me at last. "You shouldn't have followed me, Sakura."

I slid out of the swing, rotating my neck to rid of its stiffness. "Believe it or not, it was your father who sent me after you."

"No way," he said. "You actually succeeded in tricking him."

"A spotless reputation goes a long way."

Shikamaru snickered and rubbed the insides of his eyes. "We're screwed. This thing - the secret team, our secret mission - they're all for nothing if dad manages to solve it and correctly, too."

"At least we know what leads he's pursuing," I said. "Lady Tsunade will solve it before he does and drop red herrings on his path in case the enemy has eyes and ears on the inside. Besides, we already have the advantage."

"I'd like to say we do, but right now it doesn't look that way."

"We can take extra measures to ensure your father and sister's safety, Shikamaru."

"The enemy can't know about Yutsuki. It makes dad the easier target."

I took three steps closer to him. He raised his head, surprised at my taking liberties in public, and waited. I put my hand on his shoulder. That was as far as I could go, the closest action daylight would see of what was supposed to be tight embraces and long kisses. "We might have to consider proposing a new plan to the Hokage. What I mean is...wouldn't it be better to have Mr. Shikaku in our secret team? Orochimaru is watching - that much we can be sure of - but we'll be doing ourselves more harm if he's watching the correct person."

"And he'll be the one to drop the red herring on the team Orochimaru is aware of?"

"Yes."

"He'll feel betrayed by all of us."

"Karma has good timing," I said, half-smiling in an attempt to make our situation lighter. "He thought it a good strategy to keep you in the dark until he couldn't anymore. We're just doing the same thing."

Shikamaru laughed a little as he stood. "He'll bear a grudge against you for making a fool out of him."

I flipped my hair and shrugged. "He'll realize what your clan is missing out on."

Wind accumulated in a swirl beside me, and an ANBU appeared out of nowhere. Shikamaru pulled me back out of reflex, and I stumbled into my fighting stance with the notion to protect Shikamaru before going on the offensive.

"Relax," the ANBU said. "I'm here under orders to take you _there_."

The blatant invitation to our secret meeting place was enough to make my heart beat in my throat. I could hear its echo as we passed through the corridors. I held Shikamaru's hand not as a romantic gesture but as assurance that I was here. Girlfriend or not, we were in this together. He nodded at me and kept his pace fast.

Shikamaru couldn't help but ask the ANBU whether something had happened. To Shikaku, to Yoshino, to Yutsuki? The ANBU simply stepped aside once we were in front of the meeting room and held the door open for us.

Lady Tsunade, Inoichi, Sanae, and Shikaku stopped their discussion and turned in our direction. I felt my breath escape my lips slowly, as though not to disturb this surreal picture in front of us. I untangled my fingers from Shikamaru's.

Sanae noticed and said, "That's a bummer. I was the one who broke it to him that you two are no longer love-dovey, and now you march in here like you're marching down the aisle."

Lady Tsunade approached us. The clicking of her heels against the linoleum sounded like a bomb warning us of an explosion. "The worst is over. At least, of Shikaku finding out we've been doing things behind his back. We've been up all night comparing notes, and we've got the rebirth down to its core. The secret team will remain a secret, and whatever progress the other team will make will solely be for the purpose of misleading Orochimaru."

Shikaku made his way to us.

I tried not to, but I took a small step backwards to shield myself through Shikamaru. It had only been a couple of days since I lied to his face, and now of all times he had to see me holding hands with his son. I was the originator of the problem, the risk that endangered Shikamaru's life. I had no face to show him.

He stopped in front of Shikamaru. "I understand the intention behind your actions."

Shikamaru tried not to shuffle his feet out of discomfort. "And you're mad."

"Of course I am!" Shikaku looked taken aback by his own outburst and apologized to the Hokage. She nodded and let him proceed with whatever sentiment he had to vent. He said, "But for the record...the sacrifice you made in exchange for my safety and that of your mother and sister was not easy. Solving a huge percentage of the rebirth is also an incredible feat. As your commander, I commend you for that."

He took a step sideways so he was standing in front of me. "And you, young lady."

I stood in attention. "Yes, sir."

"You also made difficult decisions for the sake of my son and our clan," he said. "The Hokage told me everything - including your intentions for separating from Shikamaru in the face of our clan's dilemma."

I had no answer to that. Keeping my emotions from showing was consuming too much of my strength and focus.

He glimpsed our hands. "I hate to be the one to do this, but we've agreed I'm the best person to do so."

Lady Tsunade cursed under her breath. "Shikaku, you tend to stall when you're nervous. Get on with it."

"We can't keep the two of you apart," he said.

All my effort at keeping a professional font faded. Shikamaru's stance changed, and he scanned the faces around us for hints before asking, "What?"

A presence materialized behind Shikamaru and me. From the corner of my eye, I saw a puff of smoke where Sanae was standing. Before I could even turn, she had already thrown Shikamaru to the other end of the room. He skidded across the ground with his arms crossed against his face where the blow had been directed, and he bent his knee to control the momentum of his descent.

"What are you doing?" I reached out to restrain her. Shikaku made a hand formation I recognized as shadow binding jutsu. I thought he'd direct it as Sanae who, at that point, my brain deduced as a mole who had gone on the offensive with the likelihood of either escaping or abducting me. But Shikaku's shadow touched mine and I froze.

The rest of the people in the room stood stock still, watching me.

I waited for the paralysis to come. I had been a victim of Shikamaru's shadow-binding jutsu a couple of times before - enough for my body to be familiar with the feeling if helplessness. But as I lowered my arms to my side and moved without Shikaku's bidding, I realized something was terribly off.

My shadow, which had been slanted towards Lady Tsunade due to the lighting behind me, was now elongated and curved towards where Shikamaru was at the farther end of the room. Shikaku's shadow retreated, and he announced, "That's the reason we cannot keep you apart. Since Shikamaru has successfully stolen your shadow, we cannot risk unknown side effects of distance and similar factors."

Shikamaru stood, gawking in disbelief. "But one year...we were away from one another for a year..."

"The trauma should've led you to forget, but you didn't." Inoichi pointed to a modulator in hia temple. "We thought it was willpower - love, even - but a more probable explanation is that it was building up and had, at the time of your separation, already made a connection between the two of you although not a stable one."

"It would also explain the drug and why Shikamaru felt fine in spite not having taken the shot yet," said Lady Tsunade.

I pointed at myself. "You mean what I put in my system goes into his?"

Sanae waved her hands as though shooing a dozen flies. "The exchange of life force, nutrients, and whatever is a fact but not something we can predict yet."

"And while he was not taking his meds, I was feeling the aches of it..." I looked in horror at Shikamaru. Under this new light, I could see his complexion and his physique had never been better since his ordeal began. I tapped my forehead and closed my eyes to assess my chakra storage, hoping all my years of concentrating chakra for that one jutsu I had so dearly strived for was not affected. But even before recognized its depletion, my logic couldn't deny that my current health had yet to be affected by any exchange of life force between Shikamaru and me.

It must only be stealing from my regenerative source.

Lady Tsunade took me by the wrists. "Sakura, calm down."

I trembled at that command. Calm down. How could I? This was the rebirth case worsened. I had escaped another woman's attempt to overtake my body, but I had become prisoner to somebody else in the process. My brain couldn't stop calculating and analyzing how I would bleed my life force to my death. Shikamaru was far from okay, and even to this second, I must be sustaining his organs and tissues, and cells, and even the very breathe he breathed was a sacrifice from me.

It boiled down to this one daunting fact in my career as a kunoichi, that one thing I had always felt as Naruto and Sasuke's teammate - the victim. And because my mind couldn't bear the weight of my reality anymore, it decided to shut down on its own.

 **Nohara:**

Kakashi explained everything to me in a tone that showed his pride at Anko's intellect. We were all too used to people hiding things from us in seals and codes that if we were not careful, we could ignore the answer that was plainly put before us.

We stood in front of an abandoned factory at the west side of the village, the dawn just beginning to break the dark clouds of the sky. This place was, according to Yamato, a paper factory that caught fire in the time of the third Hokage's reign. Why they hadn't demolished it given the new paper factory just five blocks away from it was something we've have to inquire about.

I pulled my mask over my head to get a better look at the factory. I scanned the neighboring buildings for any sign of life or activity as I shook my hair loose from yesterday's braid. "They should be opening soon," I said. "Aren't we entering? We don't know what we're looking for but Anko would've left you a clue."

"We can't turn the place upside down at this hour without getting spotted." He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to leave. "How about we have breakfast at Kurenai's? She used to live on this side of the village. I'm sure this will be an interesting breakfast conversation."

Whatever conversation Kakashi expected to have was delayed by Kurenai's orders for me to cook and for him to play with Hanako while she tidied up her place. Being both a kunoichi and a mother had given her little time for anything much apart from working and making sure Hanako didn't activate any of her bomb tags.

Kakashi put Hanako on his back and let the little girl pull his hair as. I couldn't feel any remorse for him while I watched. This idiot had it coming. He knew that every time we came here, Kurenai ordered us around so we could be of 'more use' in her life. We laughed her cruelty off, understanding it must be difficult raising a child alone.

"We weren't even born yet when the accident happened," Kurenai said. She wiped the table and set the plates. "Father said it resulted from the carelessness of a guard on night shift. He left his oil lamp on a stack of papers to be delivered the next day and the wind must've carried the flame. Unless there's an official record of it anywhere, I doubt we can get a detailed account of it. It's so long ago."

I carried the bowls of soup to the table, balancing a plate of fish on top of them out of haste. "Won't it be practical to get rid of it now and replace it with a new building?"

Kurenai lifted Hanako off Kakashi with a comment that he was her child's most boring playmate. "Doing that will affect the tunnels it is still connected to," she said. "While those tunnels accessible through the old factory aren't passable anymore, the entire underground schematic of the evacuation plan will still be affected."

Kakashi leaned back on his hands after having been crouched for an hour. "Why did they create an entry point for the tunnels in a factory?"

"The volume of work for the villagers came from factories during the second Hokage's reign." Kurenai scooped rice on each bowl and passed them along to us. "Should there be an attack during the day, majority of the villagers would've been in factories. It was strategic then."

I sat next to Kakashi and offered him a cup of tea. "Was it cut off from the rest of the tunnels due to the fire?"

Kurenai put on a thoughtful expression as she helped Hanako with her chopsticks. "Not really. I suppose they realized fire accidents made the paper factory a less ideal entry point. If an enemy set it ablaze, the evacuees would have to run ten blocks to get to the next passage. They didn't make any attempt at reviving the place, too, as it's next to the manufacturing of fabrics."

"I see," I said. "That's how they came about assigning gaps of empty lots between them so fire accidents would be less costly."

"Or less exhausting," she said. "Average firefighters couldn't put out the fire so simply due to its location and the tunnels underneath. It could easily lead the flames to travel through the passageways instead. That's where the Shinkai clan came to the rescue and gained prominence."

"That's a clan I haven't heard of in a while." Kakashi offered Hanako a chunk of fish meat. She climbed over the table to snatch the chopsticks from him after gobbling what she was fed. Kurenai hoisted her back to the mat before she could dip her hand on a bowl of soup.

I transferred to her side of the table and put Hanako on my lap so she could have her breakfast. Kurenai insisted that there was no need since she was used to it, but Kakashi assured her it was alright to let me take care of Hanako for a while. "How are the members of the Shinkai clan?" he asked.

"I'm not quite familiar with them," I said.

Kurenai gulped down half her coffee. "They're not quite popular these days. The Shinkai clan's expertise is in their master control of the elements. They used the fire element to absorb the blaze and seal it. Since it wasn't a small fire and they couldn't keep it stored, they released water and wind to transform it into steam. Half the village felt it."

Anko was certainly referring to the fire when she set the seal to burn the paper. I wiped Hanako's cheek when she smudged it with rice. "Where can we find them?"

"The surviving members have intermarried with other clans," she said. "They were bereft of male heirs. To benefit from their numerous daughters, they married them off to clans who were willing to trade research with them. The current chief's estate is abandoned now since his daughter and wife died in an explosion. Kiba, Hinata, and Shino are the ones in charge of looking after the remains of the house, although they don't know what clan owns it as the Hokage has categorized the case as confidential. I was part of the original investigating team."

Kakashi continued to eat as usual, but behind his tired gaze was a mind attuned to the implications of this story. "When did the explosion happen?"

"It will be nearly a year now. I'm not aware of the exact date," she said. "Investigation proved one of the dormant fire seals must've been stored incorrectly and the fire leaked." She lowered her spoonful of soup and looked at both of us. "I've been so busy multitasking that I've ignored the reason you're asking in the first place. Does this happen to have anything to do with the rebirth case?"

Kakashi and I exchanged a glance. He finished his tea and proceeded to tell her how I found Anko's message which he later decoded to be her means of pointing them to the factory. Kurenai's expression grew grave at this revelation. She went over to the open window, scanned the streets below and the roofs of the neighboring buildings, and pulled it close. "The Shinkai clan chief is Toya Shinkai. He's currently staying with the Nara family."

"Yoshino." Kakashi put his hand on his forehead, clearly disappointed at himself for making a belated realization. "Yoshino Nara was Yoshino Shinkai before she was married. She's the youngest daughter of the former chief."

I pulled on the kimono I carried with me in case I needed to make a social visit at daylight. Kakashi asked where I planned on going, and I told him as I opened the front door that I would be assigning another ANBU to watch over the Nara Estate. There were, after all, several people of interest under one roof now.

I had taken one step across the threshold when I noticed something blue on the floor. I picked it up and saw it was a rose bud. "Blue roses, Kurenai?" I showed her the bud.

She gaped at it. "That's not mine. Kindly throw that away, Nohara. Thank you."


	12. Chapter 12

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve**

 **Shikamaru:**

It was one surprise after another.

I lay on my side, watching Sakura's sleeping figure on the neighboring bed. Instead of waiting for her to regain consciousness, the Hokage was forced to proceed to a medical examination of us both. She told me, on the brief instance we were alone as she hooked me to an IV, that she wanted to have answers ready for Sakura when she awoke. I understood her, because to a medic like Sakura, only facts would suffice to comfort.

They put us in Z3A, the first letter of which stood for how deep we were in the visible laboratories of Konoha that only authorized personnel by the Hokage can enter.

The ceiling fan creaked overhead. Shikaku sat on a foldable chair behind me, thinking. Thinking about Yutsuki. Thinking about the clan. Thinking about me. I lay on my back and put my hands on top of my stomach. "My test results show I've improved a lot. There's no damage to Sakura or any sign of declining health. Maybe we've achieved a balance?" I asked.

The word _balance_ sounded like a lie now that I had said it. Sakura's collapse emphasized how wrong I was to even assume that in its complete meaning. That blatant evidence of her stress when she fainted sucked the hope out of any mutual agreement between us that this shadow stealing was not intentional on my part. Our bodies may achieve a balance when it came to life force, but I wasn't expecting much in terms of our relationship.

"Perhaps," he said. "But this has to be undone as soon as possible, and shedding the pattern you've copied takes skill and strength."

"The two things I don't have right now."

Shikaku closed the book on elemental designs that lay on his lap. "How do you think Sakura will cope?"

"With keeping me alive?"

"I hate to say it, but she's probably the only person apart from the Hokage who would've sustained this ordeal for so long," he said. "It's one thing to be bound, it's another to exchange life force with a sick person."

"Tell me about it."

"And no, I wasn't referring to her health. I was referring to _her_. How would _she_ cope?"

I turned my head so I was facing her. The pillow embraced my left cheek like a show of sympathy. "I'm not sure, but she will. Do you actually care?" I looked at him. "Dad?"

Shikaku wouldn't meet my gaze, but he patted my knee. "She reminds me of what I did when I chose to let Aiko Hyuuga go. Fighting for someone is one thing. Releasing them as a means to win the war for that person is another. And she has my respect for that.'

Sanae glided into the room, seemingly blooming from the abundance of fresh problems in her path. "Exciting times, isn't it?" She tossed the clipboard towards Shikaku. "I've studied the rate at which her cells are dying. Thanks to the store of chakra she has on her forehead, she'll probably be fine by the time they've met halfway, which won't be long now as Shikamaru's made a big progress since his last examination."

I hauled myself up to sit. "Why now? What triggered it?"

"You must've completed stealing her shadow recently," Shikaku said. "I estimate it was already finished when you skipped your meds and Sakura felt the withdrawal symptoms, maybe even earlier. We discovered it with time enough to come up with a remedy before it does something we can't control."

I didn't like the sound of that. "Like what?"

"Like your weak self sucking the life out of her." Sanae took a stethoscope and listened to Sakura's heartbeat. She noted something on Sakura's prognosis sheet. "It's amusing how Orochimaru won't need a new shell should he discover this jutsu and perfect it."

"It's more amusing how it sounds like you want him to discover this jutsu so you can have an ally in dissecting my clan as though we're animals," said Shikaku.

"Oh, please." Sanae rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I can do it without his help. Why else am I part of this team?"

Inoichi entered the room next, and he took one glance at us to regret having come. "They're bickering, aren't they?" he asked me.

Sakura reached up to shield her eyes as she blinked them open. I leapt out of bed and sat on the edge of hers. She saw me and closed her eyes again. "They checked us?"

"Yeah."

Her hand landed on my arm. "Are you better?"

I nodded because it was an answer she couldn't see. "You're not doing bad yourself."

Her fingers trailed my arm until they landed on my hand, and she tugged it so I would pull her up to sit. Once up, however, I refused to let her hand go. It didn't matter now who saw it. They were probably the only people who'll ever see us together anyway.

Lady Tsunade and Shizune arrived at last. She made a quick headcount and approved. "Alright, let's make this quick. Shikaku, you'll proceed as you planned. Get on with the ceremony and acquire the knowledge you need from his bride. Inoichi will investigate the manslaughter outside the village. Sanae, help the Nara men with their research regarding this shadow-stealing jutsu. And Sakura " - pointing to her - " You'll stay with the Naras until we're done with this case. It's easier to observe the jutsu with you two under one roof, and you are the only medic Yutsuki cannot harm given you have no more shadow left to steal."

She let that sink in before adding, "Cruel as it may sounds, Yutsuki's disorder is to our advantage. She gives us an opportunity to observe the jutsu – erratic as it may be in her – so we can reverse it in Shikamaru and secure Sakura's health."

"How did you do it?" Sakura lifted her head to see me. "How did you steal my shadow?"

I had stayed awake throughout the entire medical examination, and Lady Tsunade and Shikaku wasted no time in sharing their discoveries with me for confirmation. It was true that we had only solved half of the problem, and the shadow-stealing jutsu was the other half we could've missed altogether had Yutsuki not been sick or Shikaku, suspicious. It made sense to me, but I doubt it would make sense to her. "Grandpa Michio spent a lot of time with me when I was younger, showing me scrolls and commands. I doubt he thought I would remember. But it stuck to me like a dormant thing in my brain until I saw you in that pond and I had to decide on a command to overwrite that of the rebirth's. I had to find a way to get in safely and cut the cord that bound you to Kana."

"We didn't recognize the command because it had been altered," Shikaku shared. "He wrote it upside down so the command could focus its energy inside the pond. Our greatest hindrance was the element manipulation from his mother that he learned after all."

I kept a firm grip on her. Just as I did while we were in that pond. "I did the math before my consciousness could catch up, and the elements of water and fire helped the command locate you. Water for the range, and fire for heat recognition. It would've detected Kana, too, but I doubt she had much life left in her then. Also, it was only to buy me time until I could dive in and...apparently I cast a shadow on you. Remember where the torches are located?"

It took her a while to answer, but she said, "Behind you."

Lady Tsunade put her hands on her waist. "There was a tug of war between Shikamaru and Kana. She wouldn't have succeeded in manifesting herself physically if the shadow-stealing jutsu worked its magic then but...given the rebirth virus entered Shikamaru's body and had no purpose, it caused his health and couldn't fight that tug of war. Stubborn thing, this jutsu. It never stopped building itself to completion."

Sakura untangled her fingers from mine. She pulled her knees up and bowed her head against it. "And all this time I thought I was free."

"It was the only means my son could've competed with the rebirth jutsu," Shikaku said, quick to come to my defense.

I frowned at him.

Lady Tsunade clapped her hands twice. "That's enough dawdling for now. We'll leave the two of you to fix yourselves. The mission commences at once."

Inoichi looked at me and tipped his head towards Sakura, a subtle reminder to take care of her. Shikaku said that he'll see us both at home once we've collected Sakura's things for her stay. Sanae turned off the equipment, gathered the documents and, for once, said nothing on her way out. Lady Tsunade hesitated. She stopped herself, I could see that, but eventually she gave in and kissed the crown of Sakura's head. "We'll fight through this. Now is not the time to be weak."

The door closed, Sakura reclined on the bed with her back turned to me.

I sighed as I sat with my legs dangling from the edge. "Do you blame me?"

"It was either Orochimaru or you."

"I had no idea that was the jutsu I performed," I said. "My only intention was to reclaim you from the rebirth safely."

"I know, Shikamaru."

I reached back to brush my knuckles against her cheek, and then I shifted my position so I could recline behind her. She turned so her face was against my chest. "We're not supposed to be doing this."

"I suppose." I pulled her closer and put my chin on top of her head. "But this is the only likely time I'll be able to be this close to you even if we're under the same roof. We're not together anymore but that doesn't mean I don't still love you."

Sakura slipped her arms under mine and pressed her face against my chest. Tears soaked through my hospital gown. "Shikamaru, I thought it was over. There's a looming threat over my life but at least I wasn't being used as means for another's survival."

That stung. Like the kunai in her hand that I had pierced through my flesh, her admittance of her pain stung. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean to."

"No," she said. "You meant to save me. This sucks but if this goes downhill, at least this time I get to be the one to save you."

Men weren't supposed to cry. I'd fought it for so long after Asuma's death. I fought it for so long during the sailing of our relationships through the rebirth case. I could fight it now, because I should. It hurt in a way new to me but I could keep myself from showing it if only to prove to her we could be strong now.

Sakura pulled back to cup my face. "If you regain your strength, will your inheritance still be in trouble?"

"I have to be in top shape like before for the Pillars to entrust the clan to me," I said. "And if I were to do that while we're shadow bound, it would surely cost you. I won't settle for anything that would hurt you, Sakura."

She pouted at me. The tears streamed for her eyes without her realizing it. "Don't make it so hard for me to give you up to a stranger."

We dozed off for a while in that position. It stuck to me what Inoichi said about her picking up and dropping me like a toy. She put me down the way she did so I could fix my focus on my family, and a part of me still begrudged her for denting my pride. Up until we saved her from Kana, it had been me planning and strategizing everything. I was used to calling the shots for us.

It upset me that she was the one strong enough to make that crucial decision to break up when all I wanted to do was fight and fight until it killed me. If I remained my arrogant self, I'd have reminded her of how much I loved her until she got back with me. Putting on the same objective lenses she used when she decided on our split, however, I knew my upcoming engagement and interactions with my bride would strain our relationship and test it badly. I loved her but the liberty at which I expressed it was causing her more pain, reminding her only of what she had chosen to give up ultimately for my sake. I embraced her, cherishing the warmth of her body against mine, and promised myself this would be the last time until the rebirth case ended.

 _The last time, huh?_

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and when I looked at her again, it was as though I was seeing her more clearly than I ever had.

We were shinobis taught to fight each battle as if it were our last, and if this so happened to be my final mission in life, I might just die married to a woman I neither knew nor loved. All my conclusions about the strategic advantage of our separation left me, and a rising panic filled my chest.

"Sakura," I hissed. "Hey, wake up."

"I am. I think we should get going."

"This will never end."

Sakura sat up, frowning at me. "Shikamaru, I know you're not an optimist, but keep your negative perspective to yourself for now."

"No, no, you don't get it." I sat up and placed both hands on either cheek. "We signed up to be on the frontline of battle after battle. We'll never stop fighting, may it be the rebirth or not. We'll never stop being anxious for each other's safety."

"What are you getting at?"

"If we wait until there's no danger to our lives or when the Pillars will like me – which I'm sure they never will – we're both dooming ourselves to a future where we can't be together. We were looking at it from the wrong vantage point the entire time, that's why it feels helpless. But really, Sakura, it's simple. We make one decision and stick with it no matter what."

She reached up to touch my hands. "Yes, but – "

"Stop thinking." I kissed her on the lips. "Stop calculating and strategizing. We can be too smart for our own good, Sakura, so right not we stop letting our brains make the decision for us. I'm going to ask you something one time and I need you to answer me with first thing that comes to mind. Ready?"

"Shikamaru – "

"Sakura Haruno, will you please do me a favor and spend the rest of my troublesome life with me as Sakura Nara?"

Her lips parted. I heard her intake of breath and saw her chest rise as it entered her body. Her face paled. I had to shake her for her to even blink. She gripped my shoulders and shook her head. It was my turn to hold my breath until she said, "I must've been hearing things. What did you say?"

"…Uhm, Sakura Nara?"

A smile, ever so slowly, crept up to her lips. Red bloomed on her cheeks. "Say it again."

I circled her waist with my arms and kissed her forehead. "Sakura Nara." I kissed her nose. "Sakura Nara." I placed my lips above hers, just close enough for her to feel them when they moved to say, "Be my wife, Sakura."

She shivered, her fingers curling inwards to clutch at my shirt. She laughed. "You're right. I broke up with you hoping we could get back together when it all ends, but I've never considered the possibility of it going on forever. Not until today."

"I told you to stop thinking."

"I don't have to, Shikamaru. After finding out you stole my shadow and we might be in this for the long haul, I might as well get back at you by stealing your last name."

Warmth spread throughout my body. I guided her to lay on her back as I stooped on top of her on all fours, staring into her clear green eyes with my breath quickening. I've considered how I would feel should she refuse, but not if she would be crazy enough to go through with this. "I need to hear you say it," I said. "You're serious, right?"

"Perhaps when you give me a ring?" she said with a smirk.

I shook my hair off its ponytail, reached for her hand, and coiled the weaved rubber band around her finger. "You've seen this before but do you know what this stands for? In my clan, this signifies my birth. In you hands, this signifies me entrusting my life to you. I'll give you one of these everyday for the fifty days preceding our marriage, so by the time we wed you'll have half of me for good." I kissed her knuckles and put it above my heart. My forehead pressed against hers, I sighed and said, "But I swear I can give my life to you now."

"Shikamaru." Sakura ran her fingers down my jaw. I could see in her gaze the same sharpness with which she viewed any battlefield, and I felt in the shaking of her body the strength with which her mind resisted her heart. "Yes. This will be troublesome but yes, I'll be your wife."

It was in the midst of this overwhelming sense of joy and panic at a decision we never planned on making so soon or – truth be told – ever, that we kissed. Like a match lit, our feelings set us ablaze and consumed us. All restraints abandoned Sakura and me. This was everything we kept under strict reign for the sake of our families and the village at the cost of one another's love, expressed not in words but in the heat of contact. I cherished her cry out my name not in pain, not to call for help, and not in assurance of my own salvation, but in pleasure.

 **Ino:**

The scent of bacon filled the apartment. I turned off the stove and transferred the bundle of bacon strips to a plate. The bedroom door creaked open. I turned with a bright smile and greeted Kiba good morning, only to find it was Akamaru yet again who had woken up first. I grabbed a pillow from the couch and tossed it at him. This had been the nth time I had bothered to be charming in the early morning only to find this dog to be the recipient.

Akamaru dodged and returned to the bedroom. Kiba emerged after a couple of seconds, most certainly awoken by his dog's wailing. He dragged himself to the kitchen, yawning, with Akamaru slugging behind him.

I went on one knee and opened my arms to Akamaru. He dashed towards me with his tail wagging and let himself be embraced. "I'm sorry. You know I'm not a morning person."

Kiba pecked me on the cheek on his way to the refrigerator. "What did the Hokage want with you again so late at night?"

I passed him Akamaru's bowl and he filled it with water. "Interrogation. Same woman. Lady Tsunade left orders with a guard like usual. It was...strange, actually. I thought the girl was faking amnesia, but as it is, she really forgot some events. I'm assuming that's trauma."

He washed his face on the sink. "Why's she in the prison in the first place?"

"Attacked a kunoichi at the gate. The girl was wandering in the outskirts of the forest and when the kunoichi approached her with the intention to help, the girl went hysterical, brought out a knife, and stabbed her on the shoulder. I saw the knife after the third interrogation. As per the lab, there were five other blood DNAs in the blade apart from the kunoichi she stabbed. I had to ask for Hinata to be summoned near midnight. She confirmed the girl was not an active shinobi. Twenty-four modulators and slow-flowing chakra."

Kiba looked awakened by the story. "You have an average psycho on the loose."

I went to the table for the report I failed to finish last night. "That's not the strange part, Kiba. The DNAs are in one blood sample. How can whoever or whatever she stab have five human DNAs? I think we're keeping her there not because she's a threat. It may be her unusual circumstances and the possibility that she's a victim that we want her in a place where ninjutsu can be limited."

"Ugh. We haven't even eaten breakfast yet, Ino. Let's save the headaches for when we're properly dressed and ready to work." He encircled my waist with one arm and let himself fall back on the couch. I wriggled away with protests of my report getting wrinkled, but he wrestled with me until I was pinned under his weight. I kept my arms overhead to save my reports. He grinned at me. "Good morning."

I raised my head to kiss him on the lips. "Good morning."

Kiba nuzzled on my neck but before I could turn him away, he sneezed and fell to the floor. Akamaru sneezed on my face as well. I gasped, dropped my reports, and pulled up my shirt to wipe their saliva away. He sat upright and sneezed again. Akamaru echoed each sneeze.

"Kiba! That was disgusting!"

"Sorry, Ino, I - " He turned the other way and sneezed again. "Where in the world have you been?"

I sniffed my shirt and then my hair. 'I showered last night. I haven't been anywhere outside Konoha."

Akamaru hid his nose on Kiba's leg. Kiba ruffled his fur. "You smell like Tenten."

"Now wait a moment." I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips. "Tell me that again and be clear because the way you said it sounds like you've actually spent a morning like this with her."

Kiba scoffed. "With _her_? Are you insane?"

"Then what do you mean by I smell like her?"

He made round motions with his hands. "I meant it's the scent of the corpse she studied. Man, you spend too much time with her spying on that Tazu woman. It's a different level of bonding altogether when you catch each other's odor."

I remembered what I had seen in the womans' head. Preceding the gap that blocked whatever it was that assaulted her was the scenery of the forest in motion and then coming to an abrupt stop. The next memory she had was of waking up on the ground with claw marks on the ground, as though she had barely missed an attack.

Gathering my reports from the floor and ignoring Kiba's apologies, I ran into the bedroom to change for work. There was something fishy here and I was going to find out what it was.

 **Shikamaru:**

We walked out together, although at a respectable distance, and dropped by her house to fetch her things. While she chucked her clothes in bags, I remedied her broken glass sliding door as best I could. There was no longer any worry of being seen together. We were going to live under the same roof, fulfilling different but intertwining missions. We had reason to talk, to cry, to laugh, and to be seen together. Although I wished with all my might it was under different circumstances.

I carried her things for her and we stepped into the daylight, together.

Sakura giggled. I asked her what was so funny. "Nothing," she said. "Can't I be happy for once?" She showed me her bandaged finger, the one with her pseudo-ring hidden beneath. "At least before _this_ throws us into another battle."

"One month," I said. "We can do this."

"And the girl? Whom your father wants you to marry?"

"He doesn't really want me to marry her." I lowered my voice. "We know that now. So long as things settle a bit after a month and we put ourselves in a better altitude of security, there's no reason to marry her. Besides, I bet she understands this is a mission. Dad is treating this strictly as one."

"Are you sure, Shikamaru? I don't want to go against him of all people."

A blur of blonde hair and purple clothes entered the main road, and at once my mind switched from my emotions to the impact of our first confrontation under this new mission. Of all the people it could be, though, it just had to be Ino.

Her strides slowed as she came nearer, and she eyed us for a quick evaluation before calling us out. I raised my eyebrow and waited, while Sakura grunted, "It's not all the time you get to see a pig so early in the morning."

It should've worked - the usual teasing to deviate her attention from suspicion - but she ignored the taunt and motioned to the bag. "Where's Shikamaru taking your things?"

Sakura stepped around her and patted her shoulder once. "I don't have time for your interrogations. A medic must do what a medic must do. Go ask the Hokage if you're _that_ curious."

"She's been assigned as my in-house medic," I said. "Let's talk over dinner sometime with Choji. We really have to get going or else Shikaku would lose his mind."

"In-house medic?" Ino tailed Sakura. "Aren't you supposed to be focusing on your promotion?"

"I'm not that selfish, Ino."

I scowled at her. "What's the big deal anyway?"

Ino matched my pace. "The big deal, Shikamaru, is that Forehead here will get more involvement about your clan problems than either Choji and I do. It's unfair. We're not Ino-Shika-Cho for nothing. Our clans have stood by each other for decades because we're supposed to have this special bond that makes us stick together through the hard times."

Sakura turned around with a frown, nearly colliding with Ino. "So you're saying a girl like me from a very minor clan isn't supposed to get involved?"

"Don't be melodramatic, Sakura. My problem is with Shikamaru and not with you."

"What's your problem with me?" I asked.

"We don't know anything that's happening to you anymore! Who are you going to marry, what's she like, how is this going to affect your clan, does it secure your inheritance for good?"

Only the last two questions would stand should she be told that Sakura was my actual bride. I held Ino by her shoulders. "This random girl is arriving this week. We'll all have dinner and you can ask your questions then."

"Gee. Thanks for the consideration, Shikamaru." She shrugged me away and went the opposite direction. "You owe all of us dinner. _All_ of us."

Once she was out of earshot, I leaned close to Sakura and asked if she had money. She thought about it for a moment. "Enough for dinner in a barbeque place if there's only seven or eight of us. Maybe you should tell your father to pay me for this job."

"Right," I said. "Because you want to secure my fortune."

"Nevermind Ino. She's just bothered that she's not up to date with the case," she said. "But you know, she really does care about you, Shikamaru."

The house was buzzing with activity when we arrived. Neji was in the front yard with Shikaku, motioning to the landscape and nodding and whispering to each other. I grumbled under my breath and let Sakura make the same observation as I pulled the gate close behind her. "I should've expected this but for some reason it still surprises me. Dad brought your new boyfriend around to cover for us."

Sakura glowered at me as she snatched her bag from my hand. "The nerve of you to call him that after proposing to me."

"Why not? It's no longer mine. I've just been promoted to future husband, remember?"

She tried to sustain her frown, but her blush betrayed her. "He was never my boyfriend. I wouldn't have been forced to say what I did if you weren't acting jealous in front of your family."

"I wasn't jealous."

"Oh please, Shikamaru." Sakura dropped her grimace and turned to their direction. She made a decent show of being surprised to see him there. "Neji! What are you doing here?"

He nodded at me first. "I'm sorry about Yutsuki. I'm afraid I'll have to stay here as a result of Sakura's assignment. As a guardian during the jounin exams she participated in, I'll have to keep an eye on her for the duration of the investigation so I can effectively refute any false accusations they'll make."

I felt Sakura tense beside me. She would have deduced the shadow-stealing jutsu to its core functions by now and realized any test she took would show positive on enhancing drugs.

"No need to sound so apologetic about barging in. I kinda expected this when the Hokage reassigned her to me," I said.

Sakura scratched the back of her head. "It does feel like Suna is out to get me. No matter, at least I have something to do while I can't be deployed."

Shikaku dismissed a servant and joined our group. "Shikamaru, the bride and her entourage are arriving tomorrow. Spend the day reviewing the rites, please. I don't want to be dictating it while the engagement is ongoing. Neji has already been briefed that Sakura is here to treat both you and Yutsuki. He'll watch over her as well as assist her. Sakura, join me in the hearth room for a moment please."

We parted ways in the hall. I made my way to my bedroom and allowed myself to smile at the wall, the floor, the window – at everything and nothing in particular. None of our problems were any less threatening, but I felt stronger knowing there was a future to look forward to. Sakura. The next Mrs. Nara.


	13. Chapter 13

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

 **Chapter Thirteen**

 **Sakura:**

I occupied my mind with the details of the temporary tattoo Shikaku was designing on my ankle. The needle prick stung a bit, but my calloused skin could take it. I wished it hurt badly so I could disguise my discomfort at this entire set up - me sitting on a cushion across Shikaku with my foot propped on his knee and his face so close to my toes I fought off a giggle whenever he breathed.

"I told Neji this provides temporary defense against the shadow-stealing jutsu," he said as he continued with his work. "No worries, none of the scripts I wrote here can be activated. Just don't let him get close enough to study the design or he'll know we're lying to him."

The implication behind that instruction made me hold my breath, both in embarrassment and annoyance. Still, I remained silent and nodded to acknowledge.

"Even though you're immune, please take care to put Yutsuki down and alert me at once if it triggers," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"And take Shikamaru's medicine in small doses."

"Excuse me?"

"Better you take his medicines in the right amounts that would not harm you. If he takes it as he did before, you might be high all the time."

"R-right..."

"What happened to your fingers?" He motioned to my two bandaged fingers, one of which Shikamaru decided to wrap up as well to avoid suspicion on the one bound with the pseudo-ring.

"Cut them while I was cleaning up my apartment, sir. Naruto…accidentally broke through the sliding doors."

"No surprise there."

"No surprise at all."

"We've reorganized Yutsuki's room so you can stay there with her and do research without hassle. We've gathered the medical paraphernalia and resources you need. If there's anything lacking, don't hesitate to inform me."

"Thank you."

"I understand you'll have to keep up your act of...admiring Neji especially now that you're in the same house as Shikamaru."

I leaned back on my hands and turned my head to the open window. They had the simplest yet loveliest garden I'd ever seen in Konoha. "I don't want to, but better that than make others worry over my relationship with Shikamaru."

"I once went out on a mission with Sanae under pretense of being a couple." He refilled his pot of ink. "That was when Aiko Hyuuga was still my fiancé. I'm assuming Shikamaru told you about those things already when you were still together?"

I blushed. "Enough to give me a general idea."

"Well, it was before the war so Sanae was still...agreeable then. All three of us understood it was for the sake of the mission, but Sanae got a bit carried away and thought she...how bothersome that memory is. Sanae thought she loved me."

I retracted my foot by reflex due to surprise. " _Sanae_? No way. She's obsessed with your clan because of love?"

Shikaku took my heel and put it back on his knee. "Partly, I think. Most of her aggressiveness is due to Aiko's death. She's the one person Sanae loved the most. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it's easy to get carried away. I want to give you this advice because most of your commanders are good at leading you in life-and-death situations but not outside the battlefield."

I nodded, my bangs bobbing. "I have no intention of deceiving Neji. I'll be careful."

"Remember that this is still a mission. He has that in mind, as well, so I don't think you'll have much problem."

He blew on the tattoo and patted it. I hunched low to see the design, found it was more appealing than I expected, and thanked him for his advice.

Shikaku smiled wanly at me. "It's me who should thank you. For the longest time I felt as though I was the only one who was sacrificing to save my son, but after last night, I couldn't have been more wrong."

I remembered Shikamaru's smile from earlier when he proposed to me. I fought the urge to trace the band around my bandaged finger. The proposal – Shikamaru and I both knew without having to verbalize it – was a salute to the future we wanted and a promise to at least take a shot.

Several months ago, this was exactly what Shikaku had made me promise not to do.

I tucked my legs beneath me, flattened my palms on the floor, and bowed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for breaking the promise I made you before Shikamaru returned to the village half a year ago."

He paused from collecting in a bag the needles and the ink he used for tattooing me..

"I didn't think I'd be able to do so much for him." Raising myself slightly, I gestured to the room. "To this extent, too. But this is what it means to be a shinobi. More than that – and I'm sorry to have to say this in spite of his upcoming engagement – but this is what he must've felt when he saved me from the rebirth the first time. That love you spoke of when you asked me to stay away from him – it's not one sided. I feel it for him too, Mr. Shikaku. So you can trust that wherever he and I may stand, I will always be wholly invested in his safety and happiness."

Yoshino entered with a tea set. I straightened up, unable to look Shikaku in the eyes. Yoshino remarked on the awkward silence, to which Shikaku responded by saying that tea was exactly what he needed.

Our discussion covered plenty of ground, beginning with the confidentiality of this assignment. Yutsuki's condition would remain a secret to everybody in the village, especially to those who were part of the Nara Clan. Should the Pillars receive word of this, they would use it as ammunition to bring them down.

I would be entitled to utilize every hospital facility and legal medical treatment that I deemed would aid in Shikamaru and Yutsuki's recovery.

Furthermore, I wasn't allowed to be left alone with Shikamaru – not after the advent of his fiancé. Yoshino explained that he couldn't be caught in any conundrum with another woman or else the Pillars would find a way to break off the engagement.

Shikaku took another sip of his tea, choosing not to comment on that. I managed to keep my expression neutral. Now more than ever, it seemed, Shikamaru and I would have to be careful in showing affection to each other.

Yoshino toured me around the house and indulged me with their everyday routine. The family occupied the east wing only; the house was too big for only four people. On special occasions, she summoned servants to help her clean if only to reduce the heat that the Pillars emanated to them.

"I notice you prefer modern utilities," I said while we exited the west wing. "This side of the house is quite traditional."

She laughed. "We don't resent tradition. We make use of that wing sometimes, but since Shikaku and Shikamaru are always out to work, we find modern tools to be more accommodating to our needs."

"With the way Shikamaru acts, I never suspected there was this estate and entire clan behind him," I said.

Yoshino's expression was halfway scowling, halfway smiling. "It looks glamorous - well, it used to be during former times - but he understands that this is not a display of wealth and power. This is a display of responsibility, and I'm aware he hates a part of it still. Nevertheless, he'll grow into it. Shikaku did."

We went to the second floor, and there she told me who owned which room. The master's bedroom sat at the end of a long corridor that was adjacent to the staircase. Windows only started appearing once we crossed the intersection and entered a longer corridor. Opposite the line of windows were five rooms.

"Never hesitate to knock on our door if anything comes up with Yutsuki. This is our princess' room. I've made changes since finding out the plan, and Shikaku added to it earlier." She slid open the third door and pointed at the one next it. "That's Shikamaru's room. If there's an emergency, you can storm in there and expect that we'll understand why you have to kick him off his own bed."

"My room's – I-I mean Yutsuki's room is right next to his?"

She moved aside to let me through. "Shikamaru is the best brother. He's regretful for the year he missed. We transferred Yutsuki to this room to shut him up. He puts her to sleep at night, which saves Shikaku and I from having to endure the trouble of waking at the wee hours of the morning. He won't calm down unless he knows she's near."

I tiptoed to the crib. Yutsuki reached her hand up in her sleep. I slid my forefinger into her hand and she gripped it. "Won't it be awkward for Shikamaru's fiancé to have me staying in the room directly next to his? I thought it was at least a room apart"

"We'll introduce you as the family doctor." Yoshino's gaze descended to the crib. She couldn't help but frown. "Besides, after what you've witnessed and what you did for Yutsuki, we wouldn't entrust her with anybody else."

I hardly saw Shikamaru for the rest of the day. There was much to do in my room which was about the size of a minor research lab and looked like one. I bet Yoshino intervened, though, because she placed two armchairs, a playing mat on the floor, and pink beddings to add warmth to the environment. Yutsuki lay sleeping on the crib behind me as I rearranged the books and paraphernalia as per my expected use of each one.

Neji joined me in the afternoon to discuss this forbidden jutsu in the Nara clan. We made a list of concerns we had to address in order to determine the steps we had to take towards a cure, and then busied ourselves reading the dusty books from the Nara library.

I was tracing with my finger a vague text about modulators when Neji said my name. I lowered the book and looked at him. He was sitting on a brown armchair by the window, the book still poised in the air as though the thing he wished to discuss now had just interrupted him also. "You aren't taking any strong substance for the sake of experiments or as a means of sustenance, are you?"

"Do you believe Suna's accusations against me?"

"That's not why I'm asking."

"Then why are you asking?"

"You have that look," he said. "Since we left Konoha for Suna. It's like your mind's in a constant battle and you're trying hard not to let it upset you. I wanted to know if you're taking anything because of that."

I remembered he was on a similar armchair the first night he ever stayed in my apartment. He had taken me home from a bar and watched over me. Drunk as I was, I had crept up on him and lay on his lap while he slept. That had been the start of his mission and his subtle attempt at helping me deal the right way with my supposed loss of Shikamaru.

"I have nightmares," I said. "That's all."

"Nightmares about?"

He knew my nightmares before. He stayed with me until I was safe even in my sleep, and no topic diverted his attention – or his suspicions – like this one could. "Being somebody I don't know. I take sleeping pills some nights. But I haven't taken anything that could've enhanced my skills during the exams."

His gaze returned to the open book before him. "I see."

 **Shikamaru:**

I pressed the tips of my fingers together and closed my eyes. The blowing of the wind outside the library helped in drowning out the noises inside the house. I had only today to make an assessment of where I stood from three different perspectives:

First, as a part of a team on the defensive against Orochimaru.

Second, as a fiancé to Sakura against the necessity of my engagement to a clan guard.

Third, as a descendant of a manic bunch of geniuses.

With dad as part of the core team that pulled the strings of the rebirth case, I felt much more at ease knowing he could sort out any puzzle better than I could. Our only real lead so far was the mutilation of virgins in the farming towns outside of Konoha, and Inoichi heading the investigation of that case made his tandem with dad a sure hit on results. Until we knew what the connection of these deaths was to the rebirth case and if they were connected at all, our focus would be on figuring out how to undo the shadow-stealing jutsu.

Which brought me to my second major concern. None of us knew how the jutsu worked or the extent of its effects, making my engagement to a clan guard who, for some reason, had access to scholarly knowledge, vital.

Sakura understood this. Thank goodness I fell in love with someone with an above-average thinking capacity.

Whatever this clan guard had to offer could save Sakura, and until the rebirth case was officially over, we could take comfort in the fact that no matter the outcome, we had decided to give our all for this relationship to survive. The proposal didn't guarantee we'd end up together – it instead gave us freedom to protect one another using all the wit and resources at our disposal.

This ordeal, unfortunately, rooted from the fact that I was in the lineage of a manic bunch of walking brains with bad luck in true love.

While Grandpa Michio didn't stumble much in the love department (I doubted his inclination towards romance), he did surpass everybody with the subtlety of his genius which extended even to his personal life. He studied the shadow-stealing jutsu in my room in pretense of babysitting to keep dad from discovering that he had broken a clan oath, and he had married his son to a daughter of the Shinkai clan in exchange for a research in the elements.

Scouring through records of military operations of the Hidden Leaf led by the Nara chief and overlapping them with our family timeline, I found out that Shikame died prior to dad's engagement to mum. Shikame's last mission wherein he massacred the troops of his enemies and was later proven to be too mentally unstable to be deployed again also preceded dad's engagement to Aiko Hyuuga.

I isolated myself from the rest of the household with the excuse that I wanted to review and ingest the full context of the engagement rites, and everybody had no problem leaving me to be dutiful for once. I kept the scroll with the vows spread on the floor, but on my lap I flipped page after page of decrees made by Grandpa Michio while he was clan chief in an attempt to understand how his mind worked.

A photograph slipped off a page and fell on the floor. I picked it up and held it toward the light. I may not have been familiar with the personal histories of the Nara who went before me, but I knew their faces well enough from the albums in our ancestral lodging.

The man with his hair down was Shikame, lifting by the wrist a boy who must be my father. Behind them was Grandpa Michio, grinning at dad's sour expression. None of them wore flak jackets or weapons. This was a candid photo shot probably during one of Shikame's rare moments of sanity.

I turned the photograph over and read the inscription.

 _Little brother,_

 _Make sure I'm the last._

I frowned at this. Last what?

 **Sakura:**

The awkwardness between Neji and me stretched until dinner time. He occupied the empty seat to my right. I gave my attention to Toya, who was singing out-of-tune for Yutsuki while she wriggled on my lap. Shikamaru was still supposedly in the library, reviewing the engagement rites. At the back of my head, however, was a nagging voice that wanted me to acknowledge the results of Shikamaru being the jealous type. He probably hated seeing me so close to Neji.

Shikaku yelled for Yoshino to scold his brother, and she returned to the dining room with the platter of food in her hands and a frown on her face. "Toya, you are squeezing me dry of patience. Please, your singing is traumatizing our houseguests."

"You've heard worse in the battlefield," he said.

I shifted her on my lap and fed her with the formula that Lady Tsunade used on infants to prepare their bodies for diverse treatments. The silence did not occur to me until Shikaku excused himself and walked out on us. Toya consumed the remaining food on his plate and told Yoshino that he'd smoke with Shikaku for her peace of mind.

Yoshino cleared their plates and lied that she, too, was full.

Neji stayed with me. He volunteered to feed Yutsuki so I could finish my own food. "It's normal for them to be uncomfortable. Yutsuki's disease is becoming more and more a reality to their family now."

Yoshino permitted me no sleep with her incessant nagging about Yutsuki's condition. Was her daughter going to be in pain? Did I plan to inject her with new drugs? Shikaku, pale and haggard, fetched her from my room at midnight using brute force.

Before he slid the door shut, he looked over his shoulder at my book and said, "Best to let it rest for now, Sakura."

At two o'clock, I was still fully awake. A forty-two year old case study about shadow-binding sat on my lap. I was at page sixty-eight. I had been at page sixty-eight for two hours. Shikaku's words lingered in my ears like a coded message, and I wasn't sure whether I had done the right thing by letting him know that I loved his son.

 _Was I getting Shikamaru in trouble?_

The bedside lamp flickered. I checked the plug, turned off the switch, and turned it on again.

I heard Yutsuki's blanket and toys shuffle. Dragging my chair next to her crib, I peered inside and saw that she was holding onto the wooden bars of her cot to stand. She snapped her head to where the flicking lamp threw her shadow.

Suddenly, she stopped and turned to the door.

Nausea dawned on me out of nowhere. I held my forehead and leaned down on her crib. Yutsuki whimpered and pointed at the door.

The book slipped from my lap as I stood. My eyes registered the silhouette of a man standing outside the room, his outline on the fish paper solid and pure black. The base of my tailbone throbbed. I reached under my pillow for a kunai and held it, but the nausea worsened to the point that I could not retain my grip on the weapon.

Yutsuki shrieked and clapped her hands.

I tossed my gaze back to the door. The silhouette was gone, and so was my nausea.

Summoning a shadow clone, I told her to guard Yutsuki while I roamed the corridors.

The kunai was cold against my fingers. I crept out of the door and entered a fighting stance, willing my senses to detect any form of suppressed chakra within the immediate perimeter.

The door to my left burst open.

I bent my knees, parted my feet, and gathered chakra on my fingertips. "Who's there?"

Shikamaru emerged from his room with a burning candle in one hand and a kunai in the left. He swung the candle in my direction. "Sakura, what are you doing?"

"You sensed it, too?"

He glimpsed my kunai. "...Yeah. So I wasn't hallucinating."

"There was a man standing – "

"Yutsuki?" Shikamaru walked past me and entered Yutsuki's room.

I released my shadow clone. The white mist made Yutsuki cough and laugh. Shikamaru blew out the flame of his candle. He scooped her up from the crib and embraced her. "Was she frightened?" he asked me.

"She saw the shadow before I did," I said. "Something came over me. l was suddenly queasy and out of balance. The moment the shadow disappeared, I felt fine again."

"...It's the same case with me, only I didn't feel too sick."

"You must be sensing it through me," I said. "I was the one who went through the rebirth so it makes sense if I'm the one with the connection to them."

"It's not an intruder." Shikamaru scanned the room. "Uncle Toya would have sensed the chakra of a stranger who so much as grazes the wall."

"Why were you using candlelight?" I asked.

"I can't fight the way I used to," he said. "Any smart intruder would think of cutting off the power source first so we can't cast shadows."

"…Meaning you'll burn down your house instead?"

Shikamaru touched the wall, smirking. "Mum reinforced this place. It was part of the marriage contract between her and dad's. The Shinkai made all Nara infrastructure – apart from the ancestral house which gramps was too prideful to let anybody else touch – capable of handling fire and floods. This place won't burn down. It'll turn into my best battleground."

I shrugged off my uneasiness at knowing so little about his clan and checked the view outside the window. No presence lurked nearby. "Who could it be?"

Shikamaru draped the blanket over Yutsuki's shoulders. "Let's go downstairs," he said. "If Uncle Toya was playing a prank on us, he'd be giggling in his room so loud that he'll surely wake Neji."

"Right." I zipped up my jacket and pocketed a second kunai. "Let's go and check."

Arriving on the ground floor, Shikamaru, Yutsuki, and I listened for any noise coming from the guest rooms.

"He's asleep," hissed Shikamaru, incredulous. "But he's the only one who'd do such a stupid thing. Do you sense a presence, Sakura?"

"No. The house is peaceful."

"Let's wait it out. See if we sense it again." Shikamaru rubbed his knuckles against his eyes to shed off his drowsiness. He started for the kitchen.

I patted Yutsuki's back. She kicked my stomach. I winced. She kneed my breasts. Hoisting her at arm's length away from me, I swallowed a litany of curses and glowered at her. "What's your problem? I'm taking care of you, in case you didn't notice."

She whimpered and flailed her body towards the corridor to our right.

Ahead, the light from the kitchen glowed.

I squinted at the darkness of the corridor; dismissing Shikamaru's beckoning and choosing instead to concentrate on feeling my surroundings. Yutsuki jabbed two fingers in the air with a force that told me I should be seeing something every person with two eyes would see.

The murk about us thickened. I could barely distinguish the outline of a gaping door in the series of guest rooms. As I was about to tell Toya that his antic was scaring Yutsuki, a shadow glided into the room and shut the door.

I blinked at Yutsuki, and she at me.

Shikamaru rejoined us at the base of the staircase, hands on his hips. "Did you hear me?"

"Hey, is that room occupied?"

"What room?"

"The second one."

"That's where mum lets non-relatives stay," he said. "Neji should be comfortable enough in there." He made sure all the windows in that corridor were shut before guiding me to the kitchen.

When we said we'd wait it out if we sensed it again, perhaps what we meant to do was spend the wee hours of the morning together. It had been the perfect excuse, and Yutsuki was with us, although neither Shikamaru nor I did anything but talk because he was going to be undergo the ceremony in the morning.

I told him over a cup of hot cocoa what I confessed to Shikaku, and he gaped at me as though I had just declared victory over the entire Akatsuki. He wrapped his arm around my back and thanked me for standing by him.

I returned his embrace, careful not to squish Yutsuki between us, and cherished the peace before the battle.

Tomorrow, the complications of our secret engagement would commence in grandeur. To the rest of the world, he'd belong to somebody else, but I'll watch from a corner and be content because be both knew he was mine.

 **Jiraiya:**

I couldn't stop staring at Tsunade's wrist. The seal I placed on her remained invisible to the naked eye, but I could feel its power like a snake wrapping its body around my neck.

I had returned home at midnight and found her still sorting out medical research in the hospital. It took only the mention of a bar that served expensive sake for her to drop her workload and follow me.

Now here we were with six empty bottles between us, and I still couldn't rid of my disgust at the seal I put on her. The knowledge that this all rooted from Orochimaru's attempt at rebirth only vivified in my mind the horror I saw in his hideout. How to translate it into a coherent report was a mystery to my tongue. I doubt I could keep my emotions from showing should she force the truth out of me.

Fortunately, the music and the quiet murmurs of the other customers helped her sustain her trance as she cupped her face and gazed out the window, in the process ignoring my own silence.

I waived at one of the waiters and asked for two more bottles.

"Alright, Jiraiya," she said, "What's bothering you? Sake doesn't normally shut you up."

I emptied a shot glass. "I thought you were busy daydreaming."

"There's too much to think of that I can't actually think of anything useful at this point." She massaged her temple. "Sometimes I regret accepting this job."

"Orochimaru regrets that you accepted to this job," I said. "Otherwise, Konoha would've been an easy conquer."

Tsunade's eyes, in spite of their glaze, regained their alertness. "So he's the one that's got you thinking instead of talking. C'mon, spit it out. You know I hate it when you act this way."

"Oh? Is that worry I hear? Are you finally acknowledging that you're in love with me?"

She grabbed the two bottles from the waiter's tray – scaring the poor fellow so much that he retreated without a word – and slammed them on the table. "Shut it, Jiraiya. I want to hear about what you found."

I glimpsed her wrist again before drinking straight from the bottle. "A dead slug. Average one you find everywhere, expect it's about the size of this table. At the end of Orochimaru's former hideouts. Just lying there dead like it's on display"

Tsunade squinted as though trying to see right into my brain. "A slug, Jiraiya?"

"It's not Katsuyu."

She waved her hand to shoo that idea. "I'd have known. What else did you find?'

"There was nothing else of interest in the hideout except for that." I lowered my voice. "Thing is, it was a recent kill. Died from the insignia carved on its body by whoever recently visited."

Tsunade leaned back on her chair and folded her arms across her chest. She understood without my having to say it. "The Senju insignia, am I right? What is this, a morbid warning from Orochimaru that he's about to come and get me?"

"We're being watched, Tsunade," I said. "Whoever left it there was leaving a message because they knew I would go there. What exactly it means is not clear yet. You're not the only descendant of the Senju clan. It could easily be a reference by the Akatsuki to the First Hokage and Mito Uzumaki for containing the Nine-Tails."

"Don't do that, Jiraiya."

"Do what?"

"I'm not stupid." She scoffed. "I don't need you to comfort me. I'm a Senju and Katsuyu has no relation to my grandfather or to Naruto for being the current vessel of the Nine-Tails. Orochimaru has made a clear warning. It's unlike you not to acknowledge that."

I turned towards the open window. Morning was coming. The night couldn't stay long enough to delay the aches that came with my responsibility as a shinobi. "I don't think it was a warning to you."

"Care to explain?"

"Hiruzen told me this story when we were younger. You weren't there that time in the training ground. Orochimaru was somewhere behind me, amusing himself with the scolding I was receiving," I said. "Anyway, our teacher told me about a battle during the Warring States Period between a party of young Uchihas and young Senjus. He said the weaker of the two parties didn't know how to win against the other, so they observed the stronger party for a long time."

Tsunade's frown indicated her temper under short leash. She hated war stories. "They waited for an opening, right?"

"Contrary to that popular tactic, they watched not for an opportune moment to attack, but to see who was the weakest of them all." I poured the both of us another round of sake. "Orochimaru asked Hiruzen who won. I forgot the answer."

 **Kiba:**

I crouched next to Akamaru as we waited for Shino's insect – which moved slower due to the lower temperature on the outskirts of Konoha - to return. The estate looked more and more worn after each visit, and by now we were more concerned with the possibility of the roof collapsing over our heads than actually finding something of interest.

The chill nipping at my sleep-deprived body turned my mood sour. Even Hinata wouldn't make small talk while we waited. Akamaru rested his head over my shoulder, just as exhausted. We'd done a series of scent-related experiments at the laboratories all day yesterday, and waited for Ino in the neighboring laboratory for two hours before she came out to say I should go home without her.

Seriously. The people there wouldn't work any faster with her hovering behind them the entire time. I told her they needed to concentrate so they could give her an explanation to the five different DNAs in one blood sample, but she motioned for me to shut up because she was not resting until she had her answer.

Shino sighed and said, "Coast is clear. Let's make this quick."

It was Hinata who first observed the chakra impact on the walls. Somebody had grazed the walls with ninjutsu, and the fact that the invisible scars it left held direction meant a fight had ensued before the place blew up.

Akamaru and I sniffed five points in the middle of the estate where we supposed the explosions originated. Shino stood with his toes veering close to the mouth of the crater at the center. "The manner of explosion from inside the basement is different from the ones above. Why are we only noticing this now?"

"It's the chemical fading," I said. "It must've been more powerful than its scent suggested if even Hinata is only seeing the traces of chakra on the walls now."

"It's as though this rundown place is becoming more and more the crime scene we refused to see it to be." Shino stretched his arms out and let his insects follow the chakra scars on the wall, making them visible to all of us.

Hinata commented that they were not detecting all the scars, to which Shino responded by withdrawing the insects and letting them go to the ones they supposedly missed. "The first one is from a singular chakra signature," he said. "This one is from another. Clearly, two people dueled here."

"It's like whoever was on the offense was driving someone away from the basement."

Hinata put her hand over her mouth as she scanned the entire place with her Byakugan and discovered more chakra scars on the debris. "So the man isn't crazy after all."

 **Sakura:**

Yoshino allowed me to take a nap while she dressed her daughter, after which she loaned me a green kimono to wear as part of the full compliment that the bride expected to have. I would not be permitted to enter the room once the ceremony began; nevertheless, I should be ready in case Yutsuki needed my attention.

"Exceptions can be made," she told me. "We wouldn't want my daughter harmed by mere tradition. I hate these ceremonies. They always take too long. I recall wanting to collapse during my engagement to Shikaku. He took forever to weave the plant fibers in my hair and connect it with his."

I sat on the edge of the bed, fighting a yawn as I listened to the rest of her instructions. My exhaustion, along with the distracting glimmer of her gold accessories and the intricacy of her kimono, made it difficult to focus on everything she said. I wondered what Shkamaru looked like dressed in his ceremonial robe. Had I woken up when I should, I might've managed to glimpse him or – better – stolen a kiss.

Yoshino seemed to notice my inability to focus because she produced a purple leaf from her pocket. "Place this on your tongue. It's a Harini that tastes like mint. It should keep you awake. I know you must be tired from looking after our little princess."

"Thank you." I studied the plant for a moment before putting it inside my mouth. Shikamaru taught me about this plant in their ancestral house, back when the rebirth case was not as complicated as it was now.

Yoshino rearranged Yutsuki's hair before returning her attention to me.

I fixed the obi around my waist and tied a lace of a similar color around my hair. "This bride knows that she won't be marrying Shikamaru, right?"

"It depends on you, partly."

"E-excuse me?"

"You're handling Shikamaru's case now. His recovery depends on you, too." She dipped a paintbrush in a pot of green ink and drew a circle on my forehead. "This symbolizes your partnership with us. Others will have the family insignia painted on both cheeks. Why are you curious about their marriage?"

I pinned my bangs back so it wouldn't mess the paint. "All his friends find the situation more than a little surprising, that's all. And worrisome too. Arranged marriages aren't so common nowadays."

"Don't be." She smiled. "Yei Hano and my son have history."

I mumbled that name to myself as I joined the group of people standing on parallel lines from the gate to the entrance of the house. It wasn't a very striking name; the images it produced were of women with long swords dragging behind them after a kill and of brown skins scarred by years of battling.

Neji and Toya walked around the garden and injected themselves in the opposite line where the males stood. The Nara insignia was painted on their foreheads, too.

The singing of the lute deepened the silence. I turned my head towards the gate and saw dozens of men dressed in black standing outside. They marched into the estate in single file, their footfalls sounding a rhythm that grew louder as more men joined in.

These men protected not only the secrets of the Nara Clan but also that of the village's. They were indeed Konoha's best kept secret – a subtle force often overlooked in the boastful presence of the Uchiha and the Hyuuga. They were the whisper that guided the leader of the village, and the more I learned about them, the better I understood their significance to Konoha.

No wonder the Pillars made such a big fuss over the succession.

I stood on my toes to see past the crowd of never-ending men outside to catch a glimpse of any woman in their group, but it was an impossible feat when all of them donned the same pulled back, raven hair, stern expression, and dark outfits.

So when she did appear, it took me a couple of seconds to register her identity. This particular person clad herself in the same clothes and stomped on the gravel pathway with the same fervor as the guards.

Her feet were small and wrapped in bulky, black boots that reached to her knees. A black belt encircled a waist smaller than mine, and an estimate of three layers of clothing hid any hint of her breasts. I would have dismissed her as an ambitious boy joining in the responsibilities of his clan's men, but her face recompensed for whatever shortcomings her body and aesthetics had.

Yei Hano clutched the hilt of her sword as she crossed the pathway. She raised her chin and scanned the grounds with small eyes made sharp with black eyeliner. Aside from that, her pale face held no other sign of cosmetics. Her high bun bounced with every stride.

She walked past me and left a trail of her scent – one that wasn't luring but evidence enough of her realness – and I finally had to accept that Ino's beauty had been surpassed by another human being.

No, Yei Hano was not a human being. She must be the goddess of pure chakra told in a folklore from our youth. This pure chakra drove men mad with want and made women kill in envy, and in the midst of this chaos she sat on a dais smiling her pretty smile at the petty mortals.

Seeing her was like seeing perfection in humble form, and I worried about how _my fiance_ would react to her when she made even the women gawk in awe.

Yei Hano paused at the doorway, released the hilt of her sword, and looked over her shoulder – at me.


	14. Chapter 14

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Liberty**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen**

 **Shikaku:**

My engagement first to Aiko, then to Yoshino, both transpired here. The room occupied more than half the space of the estate's west wing, being a place dedicated for ceremonies such as this. Sunlight pierced through the fish paper and cast squares across the floor. Only one side door remained open, giving me a view of the garden outside. I wished I could lie on the grass and watch the clouds instead of stand here and watch my son go through this ordeal.

Shikamaru had stepped in earlier donning the same ceremonial garb I had worn twice, and a burden in my chest worse than I had expected kept me from saying any encouraging word to him.

I saw my younger self in this boy, in that frown, in that apparent understanding that he woke up today ready for a mission. He stood behind me as per custom, his mother and sister behind him, and as a family we watched the guards fill the room row after row.

Emiko, my secretary, entered from the side and nodded at Yoshino. My wife greeted her with a warm smile to show her gratitude for Emiko appearing in the clan outfit she'd hated since she was young. I remembered then that she had been a five-year old girl at my engagement to Yoshino, and in inter-clan marriages she had not been forced to wear black and green. Emiko, upon noticing me, bowed and took her post at the foot of the dais.

The lute stopped playing upon Yei Hano's entrance. She broke away from the single file she was in and stepped forward. Her expression betrayed whatever qualm she felt at proving her loyalty at the cost of her freedom.

I remembered that this made her cry. She had tried not to but she shed a couple of tears when, sitting beside her elder brother in their house, she accepted this mission. She sniffed, wiped her nose and then her eyes, and asked me to forgive her weakness. " _It's simply not what I expected I'd have to do one day as protector of this clan,"_ she said.

Descending on one knee, Yei presented to me her sword in its scabbard. I motioned for her senior in the clan guard to take it away.

Yoshino stepped around me and went behind her. Five women from the guards assisted my wife in removing Yei Hano's thin armor and other fighting ornaments until she was down to her white tunic and pants. She tried not to reach for her toes and squeeze them for warmth while keeping her face impassive, but I'd known her since she was young and what litany of curses must be running through her head at this troublesome tradition. More than that, and I noted it from the rising blush on her cheeks when Yoshino undid the coil of her hair, was the discomfort of this tradition signifying her willingness to surrender the post she sweat and bled for, and all to serve now as my son's bride.

Shikamaru stepped down from the dais and blindly reached for the green kimono she would be assisted into. With her head bowed and her hair shielding her face, I doubted Shikamaru had recognized her.

The women slipped on her robe while she remained kneeling, as she was not to stand before my heir as a guard. Yei Hano spread her arms sideways to make the task easier for her kinswomen. One of them reached around her waist to put the obi in place. Yoshino arranged a white half-coat over her shoulders embroidered with gold thread, after which she and the ladies stepped back.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took a silent breath. Perhaps Shikamaru wouldn't remember her.

My son offered her his hand. She blinked at it, unused to the gesture as guards were never escorted to their feet, but had the presence of mind to place her hand above his. Her clothing restricting her movement, Yei Hano wobbled. She moved one leg and winced.

Shikamaru, against tradition, knelt and gripped her elbow so she could crouch to warm her locked joints. From my vantage point, I saw when their eyes met and recognition hit him. They remained in that position for several moments, crouched in front of each other like the kids they were several years ago, taking in the shock of finding themselves now doomed to marriage if he could not recover in a month's time.

 **Shikamaru:**

I _knew_ it was Yei Hano, but my mind couldn't comprehend how she transformed from a scrawny little girl who wrestled in the mud with boys to this decent-looking woman. This must be some kind of genjutsu or some face-altering jutsu. The Yei I knew was disgusted with anything feminine and vowed to never marry so she may instead spend the rest of her life protecting the scholars.

We glared at each other, crouched and holding onto each other's elbows, similar to the time she tried to beat me up for calling her a girl. "Are you serious?" I hissed at her.

Yei's face flushed. "I'm seriously going to break your face if you laugh at me."

Behind me, Shikaku cleared his throat. I hauled her up to stand, peered at my mother who was obviously avoiding my gaze, and presented my _bride_ to my father. We heard the guards fall to their knees and bow as was customary to show support to our pairing. Shikaku handed me two wooden boxes – the smaller being the container of the one hundred bands he and mum weaved for me prior my birth, and the bigger being the container of one we would weave together to finalize our engagement.

Yei and I accepted the boxes. The guards filed out to transfer to the waiting room along with my parents. Once the door was closed I took the boxes from her and sat on the dais. Yei sat across from me, quickly matching my temper. A barrage of conflicting thoughts rushed in my head, from this decision being out of character from the Yei I knew to the unlikely usefulness of a guard of her caliber.

Yei watched as I opened one box and brought out the wreath, the very same ones used by the previous chiefs of my clan. "All my father told me is how this will benefit your position as clan guard. Are you having so much trouble keeping up with the men that you'd go against yourself and be engaged to me? You do know we might end up getting married for real after a month, right?"

She kept her gaze on me steady. "Shikamaru, it's been years since we last spoke. I don't understand how you can be so confident about what I would and would not do."

"Alright," I said. "Then explain yourself. Why did you agree to this?"

"You have no idea what happened to Kaemon?"

The mention of that name made me loosen my grip on the wreath. Kaemon had been the closest to an older brother I had before my childhood had been isolated to Konoha. I was seven years old when one of the guards alerted Shikaku in the middle of the night of an attack on the scholars – an attempt by unknown perpetrators – with the intent to steal a forbidden knowledge. The aftermath of the battle led to a dozen deaths. Since then, I'd neither seen nor heard of Kaemon or Yei, and I worried now that they'd been more affected by that attack than I had known.

"He lost his leg in a retrieval mission." She swallowed, her thin, pink lips pursing. "One of the lost scrolls from the time of the Second Hokage. If not for Lord Shikaku, both he and I would've been cut off from the guards. You know how difficult it is for a woman to retain her post when no man in her family can fight."

No relief came to me upon knowing he'd been injured on a different battlefield, and one I couldn't have known among the many I had to oversee for the Hokage. Guards were sent on retrieval missions often. All shinobi expected pain. Still, I felt I should've been there when it happened to Kaemon. They were orphaned early, and brother and sister fought to retain their position as clan guards. I was their friend. They should've received my support.

I schooled my expression to neutral, not wanting her to realize my guilt. "So all this because you might get thrown off your position and forced to become a scholar like every first born girl should've been?"

"All this because everybody wants Lord Shikaku to retain his post and for you to inherit," she said. Whatever sharpness was in her gaze when we first came face-to-face had faded, and I thought I saw a hint of sadness. "But we do feel your heart is not in it. Kaemon said Konoha is not in great shape, and when our chief and his heir have themselves occupied to the brim, the clan guards have to step up to fill in the gaps."

"This engagement won't just be ' _filling in the gap'_ , Yei."

"I'm aware of the implications of this agreement," she said. "If ever we do succeed against the Pillars through marriage, I still won't be able to fight alongside the guards. Neither would Kaemon. We'd only have our position as security, but nothing to show for it," she said. "I don't want to be human storage of forbidden jutsus and other knowledge, Shikamaru, but I made it clear to your father that I agreed to this because it is my duty as a Nara. To him and to you."

I reached for a handful of her hair and began to intertwine them with the wreath. Moved as I was by her love for my family, there was little chance of me getting a useful answer from her by this means. This ceremony was still part of my mission, and I wasn't confident that Shikaku would tell me everything to know about the shadow-stealing jutsu while there were still theories attached to it in his head. But I had to know. For Sakura. "The game has changed since your last contact with dad," I said. "I know you're here because of the rebirth case."

The swiftness of her fingers over my hair and the wreath didn't falter.

"I remember everything," I said, in hopes of getting a reaction from her. She could still be gauging how best to approach this revelation, as this was something Shikaku wouldn't have had time to tell her while she was in transit.

Yei moved closer to me. She caught three fibers from the wreath and began braiding them on my hair. " _I know_ ," she said. "Lord Shikaku had his means of getting messages to me. I am aware."

I met her gaze for a moment. She smiled. "I am also aware that the 'pretty little girl' with the welcoming party is the one you all but died for, and that she had ended your relationship with you should there be a need to proceed with the marriage."

"Her name is Sakura Haruno."

"Suits my impression of her. And that pink hair."

My fingers slipped and lost strands of her hair that I was about to interlace with the fibers of the wreath. Slowly, I let my hands fall back on my lap.

"I understand your mission," I said. "Now I want you to understand mine. As a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, I plan to protect my village and its people from Orochimaru. As the chief's heir, I plan to secure my inheritance and lead the Nara."

"As you should."

"Let's make this clear between us, Yei – I am going to be your chief, and Sakura Haruno will be the one by my side when I succeed Shikaku. I'm going to finish this mission in a month's time so I suggest you make whatever adjustments you need to make so we can coordinate without problems."

Yei's lips parted. She glanced behind me and her, at the doors where guards stood on the other side. "Does Lord Shikaku know?"

"He knows my relationship with Sakura isn't going down without a fight."

"And she feels the same way?" she asked.

The tone of her inquiry didn't sound threatened – rather she sounded both curious and concerned. Grown as we were, at the back of my head I still couldn't help seeing her grin at me from the entrance of the Nara property as I arrived with my parents, and of her asking Shikaku to pat her head whenever she did well on a sparring match. She would always challenge me to silly competitions with her, and she'd always cry afterwards for cutting or bruising me. There was no questioning her intentions. She was ready to abandon her dream as clan guard for the opportunity to secure my inheritance.

I smiled her. "Yei, if I didn't love Sakura then I'd have no problem with marrying you for the sake of the clan. But if you become my wife this way then you'll hate me because I'll have no heart left to give you. You're a Nara, too – you're family to me. Consider this my way of looking after your own happiness."

Yei scowled at me but said nothing. Whatever was running in her head, she kept to herself.

All the formality abandoned our big group at the commencement of the evening feast. Yei and I sat on the platform slightly lower than that of my parents, the wreath between us permitting us little movement. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sakura and Neji take their position by the door, close enough to assist us with Yutsuki should she throw a tantrum.

Perhaps it was the fact that we were shadow-bound, or maybe this was what happened when you loved somebody to the extent of death, that I felt a pang course the distance between her and me. It swarmed my chest, making even the mechanical movement of putting food in my mouth difficult.

If not for the occasional guard dropping to his knees before me and telling my family about Yei's stints as guard – to which Yei responded to by attempting to assault the storyteller and nearly succeeding had I not been quick to hold her down by the waist – I wouldn't have been able to help myself but turn to Sakura's direction. And I swore if that happened, every person in the room would know she was the one I wanted by my side.

Now, however, I understand that even as we fought for our relationship, I couldn't make moves as though I was not an heir to this responsibility. This room filled with men and women serving the village through the leadership of my father and me had always been my burden to bear.

I held my breath to keep from breaking the mask of calm I had mustered. What if there came a moment in the succeeding four weeks wherein I'd have to make a decision that would hurt either Sakura or my clan? Should the case retain its current momentum, Sakura and I would have no trouble seeing light break into our commitment to stay together.

But what if?

I hadn't felt the weight of the bargain I made when I proposed to her until now. Had I been too rash with my decision to commit to her to the point of marriage? This was my entire heritage in front of me, looking for me for leadership, and history would write about me as the boy who jeopardized a clan for a girl.

I shut my eyes and pinched my nose bridge. Yei's hand on mine distracted me from my setting headache, and she whispered, "Don't show it. Everybody will be worried if you show them you're in pain. Don't show it."

 **Shikaku:**

The guards made such a big riot that, when I took Yutsuki from Yoshino with the excuse that she had to be checked by Sakura, my wife was quick to send us on our way. Sakura took Yutsuki from my arms the soonest we had stepped out of the banquet hall, her inquiries as to my daughter's health proving how much knowledge she'd already attained that she knew what to ask and what to look for to keep my princess alive.

It did not escape my notice, however, that she did this with a certain detachment. Work for her came almost like reflex. It was apparent to anyone who knew what she was going through that her attention was mostly to my son back in the hall, whom she had to face while he sat next to his bride.

We went to Yutsuki's room, where Sakura lowered my princess to her crib and prepared a mild formula to keep her calm in the midst of the festivity. As she was hunched over the table, mixing liquids and measuring, she looked over her shoulder and asked if I would need anything. "You don't look too well…"

"I can say the same to you."

Sakura straightened up, a syringe in her hand. I sat on the armchair and watched Yutsuki play with her toys in the crib. "I took you away because you and Shikamaru looked awful. I couldn't tell if that was just the both of you separately cringing at the notion of the engagement or if the jutsu is amplifying your similar emotions."

Sakura turned toward Yutsuki to hide her face from me.

"The last thing we need are questioned raised, especially from my wife," I said. "If you can't – "

"I can." She injected Yutsuki and proceeded to tidy the table. "Shikamaru would blame himself if he thought I sat out because I couldn't bear to see him with Yei Hano. I'd rather not give him unnecessary burdens, sir."

I scowled at her back, frustrated by the stubborn strength that made her so similar to Aiko. At the news of my scheduled engagement to Yoshino, Aiko had requested to be transferred to another division altogether as she did not want to cause _unnecessary_ tension between her, me, and the Shinkai clan. It was only once I had cooled off that I realized she was not mocking me, but was instead making a sincere effort to be at peace with me and the clans involved with my next engagement. "Then please eat something, Sakura," I said.

She patted Yutsuki's back as my princess lay cradled in her arms. Sakura turned to me, wide-eyed. "I did eat, sir."

"Barely five bites." I frowned at her. "Sakura, you have to eat for two people. My son hardly ate also. You'll both be exhausted beyond reasonable excuse before midnight."

Yutsuki's coughing cut her short of what she was about to say. My princess vomited on her back, leaving a trail of yellow goo across her kimono. "Her body must still be getting used to the formula," Sakura said as she handed her to me.

I wiped Yutsuki's mouth, grateful that at least I didn't need to change her dress. From the corner of my eyes, I became aware of Sakura removing her kimono, revealing her usual red outfit. She showed Yutsuki the goo. "Look what you've done, Yutsuki. I bet you did this on purpose because you'd like to stay and play with your toys."

Yutsuki laughed and hid her reddening face on my shoulder. Sakura, still smiling, asked if it would be alright if she returned in what she was wearing now. I said that nobody would mind.

I grabbed her by the arm when she made a turn to put the kimono in the nearby hamper, and she looked at me with quiet alarm. I sidestepped to see her clan insignia and then looked her in the eyes again. "The Haruno clan is signified by a circle?"

She checked the insignia at the back of her dress, as though to confirm. "Y-yes. It stands for the circular movement of chakra to amplify strength, speed, and control. It's our specialty. It's the basis of the reservoir," she said. "Why, sir?"

The door slammed open, revealing Toya. The subtle rise and fall of his shoulders told me that he'd been running. He shoved a paper against my chest and marched out.

"Is he okay?" Sakura checked the corridor for him.

I brought the paper to my face and recognized Daisuke's handwriting. Yutsuki spread the paper as though able to read it as well.

"He's not." I folded the letter and tucked it inside my robe. "A year ago, while you were recovering outside of Konoha, an explosion ruined the Shinkai estate and killed his wife and daughter. Initial findings put the blame on him for improper sealing of explosives, but we insisted that the estate be monitored and the case to remain open. Tonight, Daisuke wrote to us that new evidence shows the explosion did not come from one place. Toya believed if the explosion happened in their basement where the scrolls were hidden, the seals that would've absorbed the initial blow would've still been there. But they still couldn't find the seals. Meaning the explosions were intentional with one of them happening in the basement and the other one right on top of it, in their hearth room. It means her wife and daughter were murdered."

Sakura was quick. The drop in the volume of her voice showed she understood the implications without having to be told. "Shikamaru used the Shinkai clan seals to direct the shadow-stealing jutsu at me. This could be a related case."

"I'd be surprised if it isn't," I said. "Nonetheless, Orochimaru can't possibly know about the shadow-stealing jutsu. It's a well-guarded secret. He would be watching, so we have to be careful what information we give the team that he has his eyes on."

Concerned as I was about this development in the rebirth case, at the back of my mind, I was grateful for Toya's timing. I wouldn't want to explain to Sakura that an intruder had murdered a buck by carving her family insignia on its belly and letting it bleed to death.

This revived the mental picture of her hand on the kunai that pieced through Shikamaru. Of him lying on the grass in the Third Training Ground like that buck and bleeding the life that I had given to him.

Sakura volunteered to alert Lady Tsunade, but I insisted that wise thing to do was to proceed with the celebration as though nothing had happened. The enemy wasn't the only one watching. There was my entire clan, my wife, my brother-in-law, and my son who was taking cues from me.

When we returned, we found the guards had made distracting us easy. They were a drunken mess wrestling using only shadows. Sakura went over to heal one who was bleeding, and Captain Hachiro cautioned her because she might be squashed by the mere number and size of them. He helped her to her feet, and she squeezed his hand until he yelped in pain.

Hachiro's fiance, Akane, was so impressed with Sakura that she proposed an arm-wrestling match. Neji stepped in and said that while he was confident of Sakura's abilities, he was not comfortable with the idea of her combating men on her own.

They decide to couple arm-wrestle much to the guards' amusement. The energy inside the hall stole me away from my worries for a while. I noted how the suddenness with which Sakura slammed her opponents' hands on the table was due to Neji amplifying the burst of chakra in her wrist.

On the lower dais, Yei expressed her intention to compete, but the men shrugged her off to tease her. They cut off her whining by performing a traditional song and stomping, which they guided Sakura and Neji into. One of the guards asked me and Yoshino to join, and we had no choice but to share in their spirit of celebration.

Shikamaru and Yei were left to be the only ones in the room still sitting, and I looked at my son and Yei, wondering if I was doing to him what was done to me before. Somehow my mind couldn't decide what the best route for him was anymore. He smiled at me, but I couldn't smile back.

I found Yei Hano meditating on the roof at two o'clock in the morning. Her legs were tucked beneath her and her hands were upturned and relaxed on her knees. She sat in comfortable silence while listening to the whispers of the Hidden-Leaf Village, the only form of rest she would have now that she had entered the game.

"The sentries from your party?" I asked as I approached her.

She opened her eyes and bowed her head to me. "I've drugged them, sir – during the feast. We are at complete liberty to travel through this side of the estate without being seen by my party or yours."

"You adapt quickly."

"I have to," she said. "The recent progress in the case gives us no time to waste. The good thing about it is that Master Shikamaru may recover enough strength through the jutsu to actually release Sakura Haruno's shadow."

"I hope the solution were that easy, but we can't jump to conclusions given that the jutsu is not something we know to the core."

"Forgive my being hasty, Lord Shikaku."

"Please don't be so formal, Yei," I said. "We'll be speaking more often now, and you'll get tired of that kind of speech soon."

She raised her eyes to meet mine. "Okay, milord."

"Let's go."

We crossed the backyard, coursed through the empty lot behind our estate, and leapt from roof to roof to get to the military base. Daisuke met us at the gate with two more men from my team. Together, we maneuvered past the guards on night shift and found the underground tunnel that led to a secret meeting place.

Daisuke held the torch high for us. "The rest of the team is already there, sir. They're waiting for you."

Yei sustained her pace in front of me, checking the stance of my men every now and then and tightening her grip on the hilt of her sword. "Lord Shikaku, you mentioned that the Hyuuga who is with Sakura Haruno is part of this case. I didn't feel him leave the house."

"I did," I said. "He left earlier than we did because his superior in this case is an ANBU we call Nohara. He answers to her and you answer to me. That's our current chain of command."

"Yes, sir."

I cleared my throat and glanced at Akira and Satoshi. "I'd appreciate it if you stop gawking at a newly betrothed girl. She might be my daughter-in-law soon. Do not make any attempt of sweeping her off her feet. She'll cut off yours."

"Are they bothering you, sir?" Yei dragged her sword out of its sheath a little, enough for them to see the blade.

Akira and Satoshi cast their eyes elsewhere.

I shook my head. "We're fine. You can trust these men. I trained them well."

It shouldn't have surprised me that Yei Hano received the same – if not worse - reaction from the actual team. Daisuke announced our presence and the last sound we heard for at least five minutes was the door shutting close behind Yei and me.

Yei, oblivious to her powers of enchantment, stared back at everyone and assumed this was the customary welcome for newcomers. When I couldn't bear their stunned expressions anymore, I marched forward and flicked my finger twice, signaling her to tail me.

Master Jiraiya pinched his cheek. "I feel so ugly."

Lady Tsunade came forward. "So this is the girl, Shikaku?"

"Yes, milady. Fifth, this is Yei Nara, only daughter of the Hano branch of the clan guards." I smiled at Yei, knowing she'd been looking forward to this moment for years. "This is the Fifth Hokage."

Yei's chest rose and did fall. She gaped at Lady Tsunade.

I chuckled. "Pardon her – she's not used to meeting women of high rank."

"That's understandable. At least there are people of her age who are still capable of showing me some respect. " She extended her hand to her. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Yei. How are you getting along with Shikamaru?"

"Horrible." She breathed out the word and glimpsed me from the corner of her eye. "I m-mean, Master Shikamaru is an admirable man. Just like Lord Shikaku."

Master Jiraiya elbowed me. "Perhaps your scholars would benefit from the knowledge of the toad?"

"There is knowledge to be acquired from toads?" Yei asked. The team laughed at her genuine curiosity. I prodded her forward.

"Meet the rest of the team." I walked her around the table, where Inoichi and my underlings were still attempting to comprehend her physical appeal. Kakashi raised his hand in greeting. Nohara shook her hand. Inoichi congratulated her on her engagement, even if it was only a necessary formality to save my family from ruin. Shizune exclaimed that she had never imagined someone could be so gorgeous, and TonTon snorted his agreement.

Ino's smile was forced – even I could tell. Before Inoichi's daughter struck tension, I proceeded to introduce Yei to Kurenai, our genjutsu expert. She remarked that it was impossible for Shikamaru not to fall for a beauty like Yei, which gave me a hint that she favored Sakura to be with Neji.

I chose not to ponder on this detail because pondering would likely lead to a discussion in the morning with Yoshino, who would shrug and say that Sakura might actually be the best partner for Shikamaru in the end.

Neji acknowledged Yei with a curt bow – recognizing her now as part of my family - and without the slightest interest in impressing her. Yei mimicked him, albeit hers was manlier.

The last would be Hiroshi. He did not move or say anything. For some reason, this made Yei smile.

She turned to the center where everybody was facing and scanned the faces of my subordinates another time. The model of the rebirth jutsu and the pond stood before us, ready for scrutiny, but that was not the only reason I chose Yei among all the female clan guards I could've summoned for this mission.

I had given her enough time to assess each member of the team. Now it was time for her to get to work.


	15. Chapter 15

**Fingers around My Toes**

 **By Lapiz Sagana**

 **Summary:** Everyone thinks Inoichi erased Shikamaru and Sakura's memories to end the rebirth case. Little do they know that the fight is far from over, and this unlikely couple is at the heart of manipulating the people they love the most in order to protect them.

* * *

 **Chapter Fifteen**

 **Shikaku:**

Yei's stoic façade made up for her inability to act surprised while she was being briefed on the recent development in the rebirth case. I made sure she had all the necessary information she needed prior the meeting so she could focus on her _missions_.

Standing only as tall as my ears with a body so petit and a face so angelic, it was difficult sometimes to trust that her abilities were not a matter of luck. I knew that the frequent glimpses Kakashi had of her were signs of his brain undergoing the same dilemma. They all knew I chose her for a reason, but the specifics of that reason was something I had purposely left in the dark.

Inoichi cleared his throat and reported that he found nothing abnormal in Shikamaru and Sakura's memories. "I'm not sure if it's a good sign that they don't appear to be interested at all in what memories they lost. I suppose their preoccupation with their promotion and personal affairs are to thank for that."

"Shouldn't we worry about frequent contact between those two now that they're living under the same roof?" Ino asked, one hand on her hip. She gestured in Yei's general direction. "I mean, Shikamaru's engaged but that doesn't automatically give him immunity to Sakura."

"Sakura is not a disease," Lady Tsunade droned. "And she most definitely is not the type to have an affair with an engaged man."

"You don't have to worry about Master Shikamaru's attention wandering to Sakura Haruno." Yei nodded at Ino. "I plan to keep him fully engaged until our wedding day."

Master Jiraiya covered his face with his hand in a dramatic attempt to hide his blush. "Lucky bastard."

Kakashi's only visible eye crinkled when he smiled. "I believe there's another person of interest residing in the Nara estate right now."

Nohara dived right into the opportunity to report the hidden message Anko left behind, and how they had deduced that it led back to the Shinkai clan, specifically with the incident decades ago when they stopped the fire in the paper factory.

Kakashi approached the model of the rebirth jutsu on the table and pointed at the elements with designs derived from the known jutsus used by the Shinkai clan. Before he could announce his conclusion and I could spit out a convincing lie, Yei explained that the elements in the blood seal were probably to confuse the flow of energy in the rebirth command.

Kakashi was not satisfied. "The main use of summoning the elements is to absorb and release," he said. "The water and fire elements wouldn't have anything to absorb or release given there's nothing of the same components to absorb in the rebirth command but chakra. Releasing water and fire wasn't done as per Inoichi and Ino's visit to Shikamaru's memories. It would've been destructive, too."

"Is there another facet to the Shinkai's jutsus that may explain how Shikamaru made such complex commands work?" Lady Tsunade asked.

"I wasn't finished," Yei said. "The elements confused the rebirth command by blocking its range. It's an old command not practiced anymore because it's difficult and borders on fatal for both the target and the user if used incorrectly. That's how Master Shikamaru utilized the Shinkai Clan's jutsu. As for the shadow – "

"What do you mean by blocking its range?" Kakashi asked.

"Causing another means for the rebirth jutsu to recognize its targets," I said, as though understanding only now. I pointed at the water. "Ryo filled the pond with the rebirth virus so it can infect all animate beings within it with the rebirth. If I remember correctly from Yoshino, the elemental command can release heat without spreading it."

"I see," Nohara said. "With two means of identifying the targets, the command lost its focus and therefore slowed down due to what I suppose became a tug of war. The rebirth jutsu would've recognized heat signatures within the bond and along its perimeter."

"It achieved only to slow it down, though," Neji said. "Kana still ended up slowly consuming Sakura, and Ryo, Sai."

"Well, if Shikamaru hadn't caused a delay, he wouldn't have been able to enter the pond to save Sakura," Lady Tsunade said. "It's this interruption that prevented the rebirth from working to its full capacity. Otherwise, Sakura wouldn't have been able to fight Kana over her body, and we wouldn't have had the time to reverse the jutsu."

"What about the shadow?" Kurenai asked. "You mentioned something about it, Yei."

Yei glimpsed me, and then turned to the Hokage. "With your permission to divulge a forbidden jutsu to my clan chief, my lady."

"Granted."

"Shadow-binding has the ability to memorize a person's modulator pattern," she said. "In the processing of memorizing it, the binder puts the target in Pure Darkness – another forbidden jutsu that envelops a person in total darkness to enable an easier recognition of the modulator patterns. If the binder skips this step and dives straight into Shadow Weave – covering all of the target's modulators for an extended period of time not with the intention to manipulate but to memorize or absorb – the binder can succeed, except it increases risk of permanent pathway damage."

"As what happened with Shikamaru, although his is not permanent," interjected Inoichi.

"Yes. But if the binder does not succeed, as I assume is what happened with Shikamaru and Sakura due to skipping Pure Darkness and his, I believe, first attempt at what is a forbidden jutsu, to try to form a stronger form of shadow-binding to save Sakura…his compromised health is the least of his problems," she said.

Ino shook her head several times and raised her hands palm up, as though to stop Yei. "Whoa, that's confusing. First of all, Shikamaru didn't form a hand seal before he entered the pond. Second, what do you mean by his health being the least of his problems?"

Yei sighed. A deft flick of her wrist followed the release of her shadow pointing at Ino's like a dagger.

Ino stumbled backward, pale.

"There's a reason we call it forbidden." Yei did a series of hand formation. "Shadows are flexible. I can use the script on the tag I tossed past you to pull my shadow in your direction. That leaves my hands free to perform another jutsu. But again, the Nara don't usually have enough chakra to carry out these jutsus to full capacity. Apart from injuries being unavoidable, other clans could use this information to amplify their own jutsus where few critical elements apply to both."

Neji picked up the tag from the floor. "What's the primary purpose of his Shadow Weave you speak of?"

"Once you memorize a person's modulator pattern, you can bind your shadow to theirs without making contact," I said. "I'm assuming Shikamaru used the blood seal as substitute for a tag, although _how_ is a bit unclear. He did not perform a hand seal while he approached Sakura, meaning he still could not have used Shadow Weave to block her modulators to the rebirth virus." I sighed. "However the means, this is the most plausible theory I have next to Shikamaru having come up with a jutsu all of his own. Hopefully, not one specifically designed to stop ongoing rebirth jutsus."

Lady Tsunade clicked her tongue. "I don't see anything wrong with this investigation heading in that direction, Shikaku. We could save the Uchiha boy this way. We all know Orochimaru with a Sharingan is everybody's worst nightmare."

I tried to appear to be pondering this, but in truth I wasn't quite sure if I understood her intentions correctly. Was she – in assuming there was a mole already in place in our group whether that person was or was not aware of it – tempting Orochimaru to make himself evident by telling him we posed a more serious threat to his ambitions?

"How about its current effect on his health being the least of our problems?" Kurenai asked.

Nohara jolted, as though slapped by this fact she should've realized sooner. Lady Tsunade acknowledged her keenness, and decided to explain for the non-medics. "The modulators exist to help the human body cope with the power of chakra. Whenever a Nara uses advanced binding techniques, they release chakra at double the pace. Long-term usage of this could strain oxygen flow to the brain."

"The reservoir at the back of his heart prevented that," I said.

Yei smiled. "All thanks to Sakura Haruno."

Kakashi remained quiet for the remainder of the meeting, which focused on the discovery of the chakra scars on the walls of the Shinkai Estate, proving a battle had ensued there prior to the explosion. Although he appeared preoccupied with absorbing the input of the team members, I knew without a doubt that he was observing me and Yei, and whatever suspicions he had could prove bothersome to the secret team.

Lady Tsunade concluded the meeting by deciding that the first thing to do was take a closer inspection at Sakura's modulators. Neji could help out in that respect. I was to provide Kakashi and Nohara the texts about the Shinkai clan that they needed – when I'll find time to forge them, I did not know. "We'll keep all of you updated regarding the findings in the Shinkai Clan's estate. I'm hoping for more positive results in our next meeting. Dismissed."

On our way home, Yei reported that she managed to familiarize herself with the chakra signature of each member. The encounter was too brief, but if she could remain in their shadows long enough, she'd be able to determine whether something was suspicious.

I halted her before we entered the house to confirm if she was sure only Kaemon knew about her mastering a forbidden jutsu. Yei ran the side of her hand across her nose to wipe the blood that had began to drip from it. With a smile, she said, "The pace at which I mastered it takes its toll on the body, that's all."

 **Shikamaru:**

Everybody was already asleep in the house, and Shikaku and Yei should still be in the meeting with the team. I sat on the floor with my back against the bed. Yutsuki lay against my chest, drooling.

Sakura moved closer to me so her chin was on my shoulder. I placed my hand above hers, which was on Yutsuki's back, and tried to guess for how long we'd been in this position.

Soon after the celebration ended and I was sure Shikaku and Yei had left the estate, I snuck into Yutsuki's room with the intention of checking on both her and Sakura. As soon as we sat, though, exhaustion drenched us both, and all we could do was stare in mid-air and assure ourselves with each other's presence.

She twirled a strand of my hair with her finger. "I wouldn't have agreed to marry you if I knew how pretty she would be."

"Oi, oi – " I hit her on the head " – don't ever think there's even a competition in the first place. I wouldn't have hoped you'd agree to marry me if looks were the basis."

She grinned at me. "Neji was cute earlier, wasn't he?"

"Stop smiling. My ego's hurt."

"I think a part of him wishes he was a member of your family instead. He could've been your brother. The one between Shikaku and Aiko."

Yutsuki shifted on my chest. I waited for her to resume drooling before I spoke again. "It's hard, isn't it? This decision we made. But I don't regret it. Watching you earlier, I think my clan likes you."

Sakura snorted. "They better. By the way, how was Yei Hano? Is she mortified by the engagement?"

"She's more dutiful than I expected. She knows we didn't lose our memories, and she made it clear that she'd look after you as part of her mission but that she also has an obligation to see to it that I retain my position as heir," I said.

"So she does want to marry you."

"If we're left with no choice, she'll not hesitate to."

Sakura nodded, more to herself than to me. "We stick to the plan. I'm not going to hold you back from saving your clan, Shikamaru. If we're all left with no choice, marry her. But if we can get you back on top shape and beat the rebirth in less than a month, the better."

"Don't worry – I told her that's exactly what I plan to do," I said. "To be chief with you by my side."

Sakura stared me in the eye, undoubtedly mulling over the same thought that struck me upon saying that. How could something inconceivable at our separation be so vivid and easy to express right now? I pressed a soft kiss on her lips. "I love you, okay?"

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took Yutsuki from me. "Go to sleep. I've already outlined a new in-house training program for you. I've decided to call it Road to Marrying Sakura Haruno."

 **Yei Hano:**

I covered myself in mud when I was younger and told Kaemon that I wanted to be a man. He poured water over me and said there was no shame in my gender. "There are things only women can do, and one day you'll find yourself in a battlefield where being a woman gives you the upper-hand."

I woke up to the sound of people sparring, but the sight of my new room quickly broke the illusion that it was another normal day back home. The realization made me wince. _Normal_ never happened in battle, especially one that I found myself in because I was the suitable woman for the job.

I wrapped the quilt around my body and walked over to the window that overlooked the backyard.

Sakura ducked just in time to avoid getting kicked in the face by Shikamaru. With a deft twist on the ground, she swung her leg out with a force that scarred the soil. He leapt away from her reach, at first in what appeared to be a reflex to dodge, but instead he used it to boost the speed at which he lunged at her.

Blindly, I reached out for a kunai and swung it in my finger. Recovery wouldn't be impossible for Shikamaru at this rate, but we all knew it would come at the cost of Sakura's health. Were they both trying to measure, by use of taijutsu alone, the limits of bodies that were under the shadow-stealing jutsu? If they were ever forced into a battle, refraining from the use of ninjutsu would help their stamina last but nothing more.

Sakura and Shikamaru clashed kunais, with the former obviously having the upper hand in strength. I formed a hand seal and threw my kunai at her. They both noticed the approaching weapon at the same time, but Shikamaru was quicker to react. He spun to place himself in front of Sakura and then threw a shuriken.

The moment the two weapons made contact, my kunai vanished in a puff of smoke, and I tossed the actual kunai at him. The blade hit the corner of his ear just enough to draw a trickle of blood.

"Shikamaru!"

I closed the window to the little commotion I caused and put on the kimono Lady Yoshino prepared for me. It wasn't the kind I wore at home. All my clothes were made for function. This was made to make me look beautiful.

I stepped out into the backyard and found Sakura and Shikamaru waiting for me. The crack on the ground where Sakura's feet were planted betrayed her calm visage. We hadn't even properly met yet and already the tension was high between us. I didn't like that very much.

Shikamaru handed me back my kunai. "Do you throw weapons in your sleep, eh, Yei? You could've hurt yourself, and then we'd have to ask Kaemon to make you stop crying."

I reached out to touch his ear. Not even a scar marred his skin. "Healed already?"

He frowned at my disregard for his attempt at humor. "Sakura's a medic. What did you expect?"

Medics didn't attend to small cuts, unless there was danger of infection. That was a rule. The fact that Sakura would bother with it showed just how much she cared for him. "Your reflexes are faster when it comes to protecting her. Is that a result of the jutsu or your emotions?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"If it's the jutsu, then it could mean one of the effects is a hyper-awareness of the person you're bound to, or a simultaneous reaction to red flags applicable only to her. That poses a lot of trouble for you in battle," I said. "The only other explanation is that you're head over heels for her, which makes her the perfect hostage."

Sakura stood beside Shikamaru. "I'm not going to become a hostage."

"Oh, I won't let you become a hostage. That makes my job of protecting this weirdo – " poking Shikamaru on the chest " – a whole lot harder."

"The last time I checked, it's supposed to be _Master_ Shikamaru to you," he said.

"I earned fiancée privileges last night." Stretching my hand out to Sakura, I said, "Yei Nara, from the Hano branch of the clan guards."

Sakura shook hands with me. "Sakura Haruno. I think you already know all about me."

"Pretty much," I said. "Truth is, I'm a big fan. Surviving a rebirth jutsu is a huge feat. If this all ends badly, I'll be doing you a favor by marrying Shikamaru. You're way out of his league to start with."

"Hey, hey!"

I waved him off. "We'll produce a baby by magic and I'll return to the guards as some kind of ambassador while Shikamaru is busy with all his political whatnots in the village. I'll probably die valiantly in a retrieval mission, which gives the both of you an opportunity to get together. I think it's a splendid plan B, so there's no reason for hard feelings between us, right, Sakura?"

Sakura gawked at me, red-faced. "T-thanks, I guess?"

"I seriously believe dad was crazy for involving you," he said.

A servant bowed from the edge of the garden and announced that breakfast was ready. A rumble of footsteps from inside told us that the guards in the house were assembling in the hall. Shikamaru stepped around me and muttered something about women being troublesome. I chuckled at his remark and prodded Sakura to walk with me to the house. She opened her mouth to say something – probably a polite note to return my good humor – but I cut her short by hooking our arms together and whispering for her to listen closely. "I have no plans of meddling with your love affair, but if Shikamaru puts his selfish desires before our clan, then I'll do whatever I can to set him right, even if it means breaking you two apart."


End file.
